■ •*»" 'i 






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Class 

Book 

/of/ 



STUDIES IN ENGLISH; 



OR, 



GLIMPSES OP THE INNER LIFE OE OtJE LANGUAGE. 



f BT 

M. SCHELE DE VERE, LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF MODERN LANGUAGES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 









NEW YORK: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER AND COMPANY. 

1867. 



.83*. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 
Charles Scribner and Company, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



/ 



RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
TEREOTTPED AND PRINTED BY 
H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 



PREFACE, 



The illustrious founder of the University of Virginia, 
Thomas Jefferson, appreciating with rare foresight, nearly 
fifty years ago, the importance of a scientific study of the 
English Language, inserted Anglo-Saxon among the sub- 
jects on which a course of lectures was to be delivered by 
the incumbent of the chair of Modern Languages. The 
author, whose good fortune it has been to fill that chair for 
many years, has been led to think that the increasing 
interest in the study of our mother tongue called for some 
aid and systematic guidance, and he has therefore endeav- 
ored in the following pages to point out those topics which 
deserve most attention, and those methods which lead to a 
profitable study on a historic basis. He hopes that his 
suggestions will call more general attention to the growing 
importance of a new science, which can already boast of a 
Miiller in England and a Marsh in our own country, and to 
the charms of the inner life of a noble old tongue, which, 
through the nations who speak it, now rules the world in 
undisputed supremacy. 

University of Virginia, 

November, 1866. 



r 

CONTENTS. 

♦ 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 1 

CHAPTER H. 

ENGLISH RELATIONS 7 

CHAPTER HI. 

ENGLISH ELEMENTS 16 

CHAPTER IV. 

LATIN IN ENGLISH 26 

CHAPTER V. 

ENGLISH SOUNDS 49 

CHAPTER VI. 

ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT . . 67 

CHAPTER VII. 

NAMES OF PLACES 81 

CHAPTER VHI. 

NAMES OF MEN 114 

CHAPTER IX. 

HOW NOUNS ARE MADE 139 

CHAPTER X. 

HOW NOUNS ARE USED 172 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XL 

PAGE 
HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED 196 

CHAPTER XII. 

ADJECTIVES 219 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PRONOUNS 238 

CHAPTER XIV. 

HOW WE COUNT 257 

CHAPTER XV. 

LIVING WORDS . . 272 

CHAPTER XVI. 

ADVERBS . 312 

CHAPTER XVH. 

PARTICLES 328 

CHAPTER XVHI. 

SHIFTING LETTERS 345 



STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

"'AvSpos x a P aKr *JP e* Xoyov yv<opi£eTai." — Old Comedy. 

The youngest of all European idioms, our great and 
noble language has yet spread farthest over the globe and 
now rules the world without a rival. More than fifty mil- 
lions of men, forming the most enterprising race upon 
earth, speak it as their native and only tongue. The elder 
cousin, staid, precise, and settled, uses it at home in his 
counting-room ; the younger, bold and adventurous, carries 
it with him as he roves through the wide world. It has 
long since become the great instrument of European cul- 
ture, superseding the Latin, which was once as general, 
though used mainly by the scholar and the churchman, 
and the French, the language of courts and the higher 
circles of the Continent. Even in the early days of Queen 
Elizabeth, the gentle Daniel, the Atticus of his age, foresaw 
its future greatness and sang : — 

" Who knows whither we may vent 
The treasure of our tongue ? To what strange shores 
This gain of our best glory may be sent 
T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores ? 
What worlds in the yet unformed Occident 
May come refined with accents that are ours? " 

The prophecy has come true, and wherever on this wide 
earth men may meet, in the merchant's busy marts or 
on the prairies and pampas of America, amid the nomadic 

1 



2 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

tribes of Asia, or in the mysterious heart of the land of 
Ham, ice-bound in polar regions or becalmed under the 
tropics, — everywhere they may hear words familiar to 
their ear and dear to their heart. For our good English 
has become the language of the world ; and strong with 
the colonist, cunning with the merchant, and bringing the 
blessings of the gospel with the missionary, it promises 
soon to spread the benefits of civilization, and the glory 
of God over the whole earth. 

Surely, then, such a language deserves to be well studied, 
to be thoroughly known by those whose precious birth- 
right it is, and by all who agree with old Roger Ascham 
that, " even as a hawke fleeth not hie with one wing, even 
so a man reacheth not to excellency with one tongue." 
Modern science has done much to acquaint us with the 
form and the nature of our fellow-men. It goes and 
counts their inches, it weighs them by the pound, it meas- 
ures their skulls and examines their bumps, it counts the 
years of their life and the hours of sickness, it knows 
how many cubic feet of air they breathe and what are their 
chances of marriage or suicide — and should it not inquire 
what they tell each other and how they say it ? Is not 
language, daguerreotyped thought as we may well call it, 
more expressive than manners and customs, law and con- 
stitution, history and literature ? As there is no race 
among men that possesses a character so sharply defined 
as the English, so there is no tongue upon earth more 
clearly expressive of the nation's mind. Boldly and freely 
the Englishman uses his mother tongue, boldly and freely 
it proclaims him abroad, by its simple forms, its nervous 
power, its deep meaning. It never forgets its own dig- 
nity, its noble descent. For the English has an ancestry 
unparalleled in the history of languages. It is heir to 
all the greatness and all the power of the two idioms that 
represent the two ruling races of Christendom, — the 
Romance and the Germanic. Here alone they are fused 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3 

together to form a harmonious whole of unsurpassed effi- 
cacy, in striking contrast with the Roman French and 
the Gothic German. Flowing from a bold mixture of such 
elements, freeing itself by the power of its own mighty 
current of all incumbrance and superfluity, adopting with 
wise discrimination whatever it finds good and useful in 
other idioms, as historic events bring it in contact with 
foreign nations, it has become well-nigh incomparable, the 
simplest of all languages in form, the most spiritual in its 
mode of expression. 

With a just pride, therefore, based on a legitimate ap- 
preciation of its great beauty and powers, Englishmen 
and all their descendants have ever loved it dearly and 
used it freely. It was their affection for it that made 
them, centuries ago, scorn to pray and to worship their 
Maker in a foreign tongue when the whole of Europe, un- 
der the sway of Rome, yet held Latin sacred. They used 
their vernacular before all their kindred races for prose 
writing, and thus showed their early mental maturity, since 
prose requires knowledge and deep thought, whilst poetry 
may at least and often does content itself with the expres- 
sion of feelings. Never did foreign idioms play the mas- 
ter in England, as they did on the Continent ; never did 
her great writers disgrace their names by a subservient 
preference for foreign languages. How different is this 
from the German, which was despised by the great Fred- 
erick, held in contempt by Leibnitz, the most renowned 
philosopher of Germany, and, to some extent at least, laid 
aside even in our day, by the master of modern writers, 
Alexander von Humboldt, avowedly for the purpose of 
making his works, written in French, accessible to scholars 
of all countries. Men who have thus abandoned the tongue 
of their fathers may have gained individually, but they 
have lost the pleasure of writing in their mother tongue, 
inseparable as it needs must be of greater force and 
stronger individuality ; they have abandoned at once all 



4 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

hope of the eternal renown of having created a language 
like the immortal Dante. 

The same love and pride, which Englishmen thus showed 
in their strong attachment to their language, and their stub- 
born resistance to all influence from abroad, has ever pro- 
tected them against tyranny at home, and they alone of 
all nations have always enjoyed unrestrained freedom of 
the press. Already Hermes notices with natural satis- 
faction, that England never knew an Index Expurgatorius, 
nor has its genius ever been shackled by an Inquisition. 
On the contrary, this freedom of speech called forth and 
fostered a corresponding spirit of free inquiry and led 
the way to that prudent enjoyment of liberty, of which 
the British people have just cause to be proud, amid fallen 
thrones and shattered democracies. 

With all these attractions, however, and in spite of the 
rich reward held out to the diligent student, little has as 
yet been done for the proper study of English. Much 
time and labor are bestowed in schools and at home on 
Greek and Latin ; French and Italian, Spanish and Ger- 
man, receive their share of attention, but everybody is 
apparently expected to know English by instinct. Where 
efforts have been made in the right direction, they have 
been thwarted by the old scholastic method, which fills our 
grammars with Latin terms and contents itself with long- 
winded definitions. We seem to forget entirely that lan- 
guage consists of two parts, like man himself — of the out- 
ward form, the word corresponding to our earth-born body, 
and of the inner meaning, which represents the immortal 
soul. The knowledge of words themselves is worth little. 
It was this view which led the great Polyglot-cardinal to 
reply peevishly to an indiscreet flatterer : " What am I but 
an ill-bound dictionary ? " To attain a thorough knowl- 
edge of the meaning of words and of the manner in 
which at different times and under changing influences 
they may be made to succeed in expressing it in their out- 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 

ward form, this is the true object of the study of lan- 
guage. We must never lose sight of the fact that words 
are the only medium of the inner life between man and 
man, and that, as Montaigne already expressed it, " Nous 
ne sommes hommes et nous ne tenons les uns aux autres 
que par la parole." 

Nor must it be forgotten that, interesting as the history 
of words is — and Dean Trench surely has convinced his 
many readers of this fact — there is also a history of lan- 
guages, which may be studied with profit and pleasure. 
Their pedigree is as complete and as full of adventure 
as that of the Rohan s, though it may not lead us with 
them to the door of Noah's Ark. Few subjects in the 
w T hole ranp-e of human knowledge are fuller of interest and 
richer in instruction than the gradual development of 
a national language, exhibiting as in a mirror the many 
changes going on in the nation's mind. We all have felt 
this more or less distinctly, when we have marked the 
difference between the virtus of the manly Roman, and 
the vertu of the degenerate but art-loving Italian of our 
day, or when the knave of our day recalls by chance to 
us those lines of the version of the great Wickliffe, in 
which St. Paul calls himself reverently " a knave of Jesus 
Christ." It is not accident nor arbitrary power that 
makes 

" words, whilom flourishing 



Pass now no more, but banished from the court, 
Dwell with disgrace among the vulgar sort, 
And those, which eld's strict doom did disallow 
And damn for bullion, go for cm-rent now." 

What is true of words, is equally true of the whole lan- 
guage ; it ever bears on its surface the impress of the 
mind of the people by whom it is spoken, and he who 
studies it with History by his side and Philosophy coming 
to his aid, will soon find that it leads him directly to the 
most retired and inmost parts of the soul of a nation, the 
secrets of which no other key can unlock. 



6 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

It is the purpose of this Essay to throw out some sug- 
gestions and to furnish some information that may aid in 
thus studying a language, of which the master of philol- 
ogy, Grimm, says that " in wealth, wisdom, and strict econ- 
omy, none of the living languages can vie with it." The 
richer, the wiser, and the more perfect in its mechanism 
it is, the greater of course the difficulty of appreciating it 
fully and of entering deeply into its secret chambers. 
Noble efforts, however, have been made toward this end 
in England and abroad, and there is reason to hope that 
we shall soon be fully acquainted with the private as well 
as the public history of our language, and then agree with 
the sentiment of an enthusiastic admirer, who sings, that — 

" Stronger far than hosts that march 
With battle-flags unfurled, 
It goes with Freedom, Thought, and Truth, 
To rouse and rule the world." 



CHAPTER II. 

ENGLISH RELATIONS. 

" Idioms have their kindred as well as men." — Duponceau. 

When a man rises to eminence in our midst, friend 
and foe become alike anxious to ascertain who his fore- 
fathers were and what relations he has now among men. 
To trace his pedigree back beyond a few generations is 
generally found a difficult task, which is finally, if not alto- 
gether abandoned, as is apt to be the case in this country, 
referred to the Herald's College, where fact and fancy are 
happily blended. There it is all well ascertained and duly 
attested, but in spite of shield and motto we do not believe 
the statement quite as readily and as fully as the ingenious 
officers would have us do. It is not otherwise with lan- 
guages. Let one of them become great and powerful, and 
at once curiosity and genuine interest are eagerly at work, 
to ascertain the early history of the idiom. Here also easy 
and complete solutions are freely offered. Now the San- 
scrit is declared to be the common ancestor of all lan- 
guages, and now the Hebrew ; some prefer the Celtic, and 
others again trace all words back to the famous nine sylla- 
bles of the great Murray. In our day, even, champions 
take up arms in behalf of the Interjections, and proclaim 
them to have been the original words from which all others 
have been derived, somewhat after the manner of Darwin's 
great theory, and immediately they are met by the advo- 
cates of the famous Bow-wow theory, as Max Muller calls 
it, who believe in the cries of animals and the voices of 
Nature as having taught man his speech. 



8 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

In spite of all these varied explanations, however, the 
first origin of language is still, to this day, one of those 
mysteries which a wise Providence has, for some good pur- 
pose, concealed as yet from our eye, even as our great 
mother Nature hides the grain in her dark bosom, until it 
breaks as a tender blade through the clod to greet the light 
of day. Whether language be a gift granted to man, like 
all other faculties, at the time of his creation, or whether 
he be capable to produce and form it by means of his own 
unaided powers, is a much vexed question. Nor have the 
wisest among us yet agreed as to the unity of language, for 
while some admit without doubt or gainsay the simple 
statement of Holy Writ, from the first moment of man's 
existence to the confounding of lips at Babel, others insist 
upon this view, that as races owe their origin to different 
pairs of first men, so languages also have arisen from as 
many different mother tongues. Fortunately, it is not im- 
possible to understand English well without tracing it back 
to the creation of the world. We are quite sure that the 
poor Egyptian boy, who was sent, with a goat for his sole 
companion, into the Libyan desert to teach Psammitichus 
by the first words he would utter the original tongue of the 
earth, did not speak English ; and as the Spanish have 
settled it to their own satisfaction that Castilian is the lan- 
guage which has ever been used in heaven, we dare not 
present an equal claim for our English. 

This only we know, that it had its first origin, as far as 
is known to history and to tradition, in the Orient. JEx 
Oriente lux, seems to be true with regard to languages as 
well as with creeds. For our researches point all to the 
one great fact, that, if we set aside the comparatively unex- 
plored territories of the American and African idioms, to- 
gether with the Chinese, there are in the whole kingdom 
of speech but three grammatical families to which every 
known dialect can be referred with unerring certainty. 
Each of these families bears its own distinctive marks, so 



ENGLISH RELATIONS. 9 

clearly defined that there is no mingling between them, no 
possibility of mistaking the allegiance of even the latest 
descendants. The white, the red, and the black races are 
not more strikingly different from each other in color and 
character than the Shemitic, the Aryan, and the nomadic 
Turanian families of languages. With the first and the last 
of these groups our English has nothing in common, though 
the Bible has made some Shemitic terms dear and sacred 
to us, and trade and commerce have familiarized us with a 
few Turanian words. But there is neither kindred nor 
sympathy between those languages and our own. For the 
English is a child of the great Aryan family, so called from 
its ancient homestead in Asia, now known as Iran. Thence 
all the descendants of that most noble family have spread 
westward, until Asia and Europe formed, as to language, 
but one great country, and their vast brotherhood became 
known as the Indo-European. All the members of this 
family trace back their origin to one great central language, 
and all of them abandoned their first home in times far 
earlier than those when Homer sang, when Zoroaster gave 
his laws, and the poets of the Vedas wrote their marvelous 
myths. All, moreover, from the oldest known, the San- 
scrit, to the youngest born, our English, are but varied 
forms of the same type, — modifications of the same lan- 
guage as it was once spoken in Asia. When they dwelt 
there, and where they ruled, we cannot now ascertain, for 
their early history goes back far beyond historic chronol- 
ogy ; and yet that they possess an existence and a reality is 
proved by inductive evidence beyond all cavil and doubt. 
But this is not all, for recent discoveries have taught us 
even more surprising facts regarding these mysterious an- 
cestors of our English. The most careful researches, the 
most sifting investigations, have failed to bring to light a 
single new root that has been added to the first common 
inheritance of these dialects, or a single new element that 
has been created in the gradual formation of their grammar 



10 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

since their first separation! On the other hand, it has 
been discovered that many words, which witnessed that 
early breaking up of the family, are still living in India and 
Europe alike, and thus bear evidence, now, of the common 
first origin. The terms for God, house, father and mother, 
son and daughter, heart and tears, axe and tree, dog and 
cow, identical in all Indo-European families, have thus 
been well compared to watchwords of a great army on its 
solemn march around the globe. For many of these terms, 
which sprang up more than four thousand years ago at 
Agra, at Delhi, and Benares, have but quite lately scaled 
the Rocky Mountains of Western America, and are rapidly 
filling the forests on the shores of the Pacific. 

Of the many members of this family, seven have risen 
to such distinction as to have become, in their turn, found- 
ers of great and powerful races. Two alone have main- 
tained themselves at home : 

1. The Indie, represented of old by the Sanscrit, which 
was spoken more than fifteen hundred years before Christ, 
and yet produced in that hoary antiquity already the far- 
famed Yedas. Its living forms are the Pracrit and Tali, 
and another strange, uncouth language, long considered a 
mere jargon, and then traced back to ancient Egypt or 
Palestine, but now re-established in its genuine birthright. 
This is the idiom spoken by the Gypsies, who have at last 
succeeded in proving their melancholy claim to be consid- 
ered exiles from Hindostan, their native land. It is they 
alone who have brought the few strange forms of Sanscrit 
words we know to Western Europe, as parts of their quaint 
language, in which the oldest words of ancient idioms min- 
gle with the latest offspring of modern tongues. 

2. The Iranic, famous under the name of Zend, as the 
language of Zoroaster's great work, Zencla Yesta, and of 
late much endeared to us by the remarkable discoveries 
made in the wedge-shaped inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, 
and Xerxes, which so strikingly illustrate and confirm 



ENGLISH RELATIONS. 11 

numerous, hitherto unexplained, statements of the Bible. 
Both languages, however, are like the pure Sanscrit, now 
dead languages, and survive only in the slightly altered 
form of Armenian and the national language of the Per- 
sian, who could boast already a thousand years before 
Christ, of an illustrious poet, Ferdusi. The other promi- 
nent members of this family have, with the races that 
spoke them, left the cradle of mankind in Central Asia, 
and, in successive waves, made their way westward. One 
after another the idioms of the ruling nations of the world, 
they have each been supreme for a time, and then given 
way to a successor. The oldest of all these is — 

3. The Celtic, which Herodotus already knew as the lan- 
guage of a people that had passed even beyond the pillars 
of Hercules, and who are, therefore, commonly looked upon 
as the oldest settlers in Europe. At the very first dawn of 
history it is found as the idiom used by the masters of Eu- 
rope. It was heard alike in England and in Ireland, in 
France and in Spain, in Switzerland and in the eastern 
regions as far back as Thracia. But its splendor has de- 
parted as the sceptre has been wrested from the Celtic 
race, and now it is spoken by little more than ten mill- 
ions. But it still bears marks of a strange individuality ; 
its double words are so loosely joined together that the 
original elements may be easily seen and severed, and its 
mode of inflection differs strangely from that of all other 
languages, inasmuch as it affects not, as usually, the final, 
but changes, instead, the initial letters. 

In Great Britain it has, from of old, exhibited a strict 
line of division between the Cymric or Old British, and the 
Gadhelic or Irish. The former is now represented by the 
Welsh, which alone survives in full vigor. The Cornish 
can hardly be said to exist any longer except as a written 
language, for the last person who Spoke it as her mother- 
tongue is reported to have died more than seventy years 
ago. The Armorican, introduced by fugitive Britons into 



12 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

that part of northern France which, from the new settlers, 
took its name of Little Britanny, resembles the Welsh so 
nearly that Count de la Villemarque, a native of Bretagne, 
who used it in addressing a literary club in Wales, was un- 
derstood by 'all who were present. 

The Gadhelic or Gaelic survives as Erse in Ireland, 
where it still claims to be considered a national tongue. 
The Gaelic proper, carried across the channel to Scot- 
land, is now only heard in the remoter valleys of the 
Grampian Mountains and in some parishes of the country 
lying between Cairn and Caithness. The Isle of Man en- 
joys its own Celtic dialect, the Manx, which is, however, 
mixed with Danish and other Norse elements. 

Between these dialects and our English there is no other 
relationship than that of common descent, obscured by an 
early separation, which dates back to very ancient times. 
The mechanical admixture of Celtic words and forms of 
expression is but small, as there seems to have existed a 
strong, reciprocal repulsion between the Celts and all other 
European families and their languages. Theirs was the 
fierce warfare between the Druid and the priest, the mis- 
tletoe and the palm, and the victorious cross in those days 
spared not the beaten foe. Even in those counties of 
Wales, which were last Anglicized, not a dozen words have 
been adopted by the Saxon from the Celt — his mouth ab- 
hors their fluent gutturals. 

After the Celts came those mysterious wanderers, whose 
sea-faring life marked them early among the nations of the 
earth, and earned for them the name of Pelasgi. Their 
idioms now in turn ruled the world, as 

4. Hellenic in fair Hellas, after the four dialects of ear- 
lier days, the Doric, Aeolic, Attic, and Ionic had formed 
the common language of ancient Greece, and as 

5. Italic, which, in its new home of Latium, became 
known as Latin. Like the Greek it also arose from a mix- 
ture of early dialects : the Oscan, spoken by the Samnites, 



ENGLISH RELATIONS. 13 

and not unknown to Rome as late even as the days of the 
Caesars, the Umbrian, which could boast of the earliest 
priestly literature and the renowned seven " Tables of Igu- 
vium," and the Latin of Latium. In its turn it has, after 
the fall of Rome and the advent of new races, divided into 
numerous branches, and bequeathed to our day the beauti- 
ful dialects, which we know as Romance languages. Its 
descendants now spoken are the Italian, the Wallachian, a 
quaint form of Latin mixed with Turkish, Greek, and an- 
cient Illyrian, the Spanish with its younger son the Portu- 
guese, the French, and the Provencal. 

Among these the English finds itself already more at 
home, and a striking family-likeness may be discovered 
here and there. The French enters actually into our ver- 
nacular, and claims, since the days of the Norman Con- 
quest, a large share of our vocabulary. What makes it 
more important to us, is the fact that the distribution does 
not seem to have been left to chance only, and close obser- 
vation will easily show the remarkable lines that divide the 
two elements. Where the true Saxon words have to do 
with the sensible world, the French words deal with the 
spiritual ; the former stand for things particular and con- 
crete, the latter for things general and abstract. Still, 
there ever remains something foreign and uncongenial in 
the descendants of the Romance family, which shows 
clearly that there is no near kinship between them and the 
older, dearer part of our English. " English words," says 
' Hare, " sound best from English lips," and though there are 
many French terms, which we could not well do without, 
we still prefer, in familiar language and for ordinary pur- 
poses, the good old Saxon terms. Thus we say rather like 
than similar, give than present, beg than solicit, kinsman 
than relation, neighborhood than vicinity, and praise than 
encomium. 

We feel much more at home with the members of the 
6. Teutonic family, in whose midst our English stands as 



14 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

the fairest and strongest of all. Here it meets above all 
the High German, the oldest in culture, the richest in pure 
vowels, euphony and vigor, the greatest in intellectual 
strength for nearly ten centuries. Inferior by far is the 
elder brother, who sold his birthright long ago, the Low 
German, although its oldest branch, the Gothic, was spoken 
by the conquerors of Imperial Rome, the followers of Alaric, 
Theodoric, and Attila, and grand old Ulfilas himself, who 
used it, not four hundred years after Christ, to render the 
word of God for the first time into a modern tongue. A 
lowly branch of this family, the Anglo-Saxon, found its 
way from the Continent and Southern Denmark to the dis- 
tant shores of England, and there rose slowly and painfully, 
to become in our day the language of the world. The Old 
Dutch, which has gained its independence and a literature 
of its own only since the thirteenth century, is its nearest 
relation, and together with the old Frisic on the northern 
coast of Germany, which is unfortunately dying out since 
the Frisians have been held in subjection by foreign rulers, 
furnishes the best illustrations and exhibits the most strik- 
ing resemblance to our Old English. 

Of scarcely inferior rank and antiquity with the High 
and the Low German are the members of the Scandinavian 
family. The Swedish preserves its oldest spoken forms in 
a few remote valleys of the interior, whilst the Icelandic, 
brought from Sweden to the Ultima Thule, can boast of 
the oldest written forms of these idioms. The Danish and 
the Norwegian are comparatively modern, and can hardly 
lay claims to be considered truly national tongues, though 
the former has a literature worthy of the highly cultivated 
people by whom it is spoken. 

These, then, are the nearest relations our English has 
among the many idioms spoken in Europe. The languages 
of the first wave of immigration have receded to the far 
West of the Continent, and barely survive there in daily de- 
clining vigor and in wholly changed forms. Those of the 



ENGLISH RELATIONS. 15 

second wave, the Germanic, rule now in the centre of Eu- 
rope, and between them and English the feeling of kindred 
is strong and the facility of interchange most abundant. 
The last-comer in Europe, 

7. The Sclavonic family has not yet penetrated to the 
centre, though it is firmly and indefatigably pushing its out- 
posts farther and farther westward. It holds supreme but 
somewhat barbarous sway over the gigantic East, and in the 
form of powerful Russian claims the assistance of its kins- 
men, the Polish, Bohemian, and others, to aid in establish- 
ing a vast Panslavism. With them our English has noth 
ing in common ; there may even be said to exist a feeling 
of antagonism, as if the languages, like the races, foresaw 
that the day cannot be far, when they will have to struggle, 
as their predecessors have done before them, for the scep- 
tre of the world. 



CHAPTER III. 

ENGLISH ELEMENTS. 

11 The English, thanks to its varied elements, is a vehicle of marvelous power and 
beauty for the expression of thought." 

A scion of the great Germanic family, our English is 
the direct and legitimate descendant of the Anglo-Saxon, 
but in the course of its long and prosperous career it has 
entered into many an alliance with other idioms and taken 
at least one other language, the French, to its heart and 
home, fairly dividing with it the rule of Great Britain. It 
may well be said that in English all the existing nationali- 
ties of Europe — the Sclavonic alone excepted — meet and 
mingle together. The Celtic race, the oldest of them all, 
has nowhere preserved itself so long and so nobly as here ; 
the Germanic has here borne its earliest fruit, shown its 
greatest independence, and held its own bravely to this day 
against foe and rival ; then the Northman vigorously en- 
tered upon the scene, and though possessing great power 
of his own blended willingly with the Saxon, and thus 
added the last elements wanting to national greatness. 
The Latin of ancient Rome, of the Church, and of Modern 
Science, brought each its fair offering ; the Greek has sup- 
plied some recent wants, and hardly a race upon earth but 
has sent a tribute to the mighty idiom. The immense 
power of such a mingling of dialects, each endowed with 
its own peculiar strength, was early seen. The first result 
was not the adoption of any one prevailing speech, but the 
formation of a jargon, which not until the fourteenth 
century adopted a fixed, though degenerate form. And 



ENGLISH ELEMENTS. 17 

yet, but a few generations later this tongue possessed 
already the greatest poet the human race has ever known, 
and since then it has become the first of all languages 
spoken. 

We would err grievously, however, if we were to con- 
clude from this variety of elements, which constitute the 
idiom, that it is a mere farrago of discordant material, or 
even a mere continuation of one or more of the parent 
stocks. As a living organism English is an entirely new 
individual. It is neither Anglo-Saxon in a new garb, 
nor the offspring of a union between Saxon and Norman 
French. Both these languages were inflected, and had 
their rigidly fixed syntax dependent on inflections. In the 
continued struggle, however, during which the two tongues 
fought for supremacy, both lost all the looser forms and 
more changeable modes of expression, retaining little be- 
yond the essentials of their substance. These the new 
idiom., English, freed from all inflections, and subjected 
to entirely new laws of syntax,- which how make up its 
striking and exclusive character among the languages of 
Europe. 

c Nevertheless it is well worth while to inquire what were 
the different elements, the amalgamation of which could 
produce such remarkable results. The very heart of the 
language is, of course, Anglo-Saxon, but this was already 
not a simple idiom, but a mixture of various dialects, 
belonging. to different races. The latter belonged, however, 
all to the one great German people, upon whose lands the 
increasing power of Imperial Rome encroached from year 
to year more forcibly. As her victorious legions pressed 
the unhappy tribes more closely, dislodging and expelling 
one after another from their native seats, they naturally 
retreated in the line which offered them the greatest 
advantages. This was marked out by the great rivers, the 
Rhine, the Elbe and their tributaries, all flowing in a 
north-westerly direction, and offering at the same time a 
2 



18 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

ready means of protection in the rear, and an easy outlet 
in front toward not far distant lands. 

Like all rude races, the Germans of those days suffered 
under the sad effects of jealousies of tribe, of family, and 
of class, losing thus in their earliest days, as in our own 
century, by the want of unity, the enjoyment of that vast 
power to which they are so well entitled by their numbers, 
their strength, and their intellectual superiority. Hence 
they did not migrate in large bodies, and when they came 
to England, they presented neither political nor linguistic 
unity, but they came in detached numbers, with varied 
peculiarities and distinct unwritten dialects. 

When we speak of a conquest by Anglo-Saxons, there- 
fore, we mean by it a gradual settlement of the British 
isles by a number of successive and totally distinct bodies 
of invaders from Germany, representing in unknown pro- 
portions all the races and tongues, which are found between 
the Elbe and the Eider, with contributions from other 
tribes dwelling on the Atlantic and the Baltic. At a time 
when history is still silent and tradition our only authority, 
it is difficult to speak with precision. So much only can 
be stated with certainty, that among these various elements 
three stood preeminent at the first invasion and have since 
left their impress unmistakably on the character and the 
language of the English people. 

These are the Jutes from southern Denmark, who, pressed 
upon by their neighbors, the Danes, left their native land 
and settled in Kent, the Isle of Wight, and part of the 
opposite coast of Hampshire. Then there were the Saxons 
proper, from the modern Duchy of Holstein, between the 
Elbe and the Eider, a race of pirates and marauders, 
against whom Theodosius fought and triumphed under the 
Emperor Valentinian, and thus earned the name of Saxoni- 
cus. Their inroads became from year to year bolder and 
soon so frequent, that in the fourth century the sea-coast 
of England was known as Litus Saxonicum. At last they 



ENGLISH ELEMENTS. 19 

made themselves masters of all the lands south of the 
Thames. Extending their conquest east, west, and south, 
they founded the kingdoms of Essex, Wessex, and Sussex, 
and in the centre of all Middlesex. Great must have been 
their power and permanent their influence, for to this day 
the Welsh and the Gaels, following the example of their 
forefathers, call the English language Saesonaeg, and the 
Scotch Highlanders speak in like manner of their neigh- 
bors as Sassenachs. Finally, there came Angles from that 
part of Slesvic, which still bears their name, between the 
Eider and an arm of the Baltic. They took all the rest 
of the island, founding for their folk the two kingdoms of 
the north and the south, Norfolk and Suffolk, and extend- 
ing in Northumberland northward to the Firth and the 
Clyde. 

The Britons by no means succumbed at once. On the 
contrary, they fought a noble battle for their land, their 
liberty and their faith — a battle which lasted for nearly 
three centuries. Fate, however, was against them. They 
had fulfilled the purposes for which their race had been 
sent to these islands, and at last their Arthur lay buried at 
Glastonbury, and nothing was left them but the hope, that 
he will one day come back, rising once more in his might, 
and restore their former glory. When the struggle was 
over, the Saxons were masters of the land, but it was not 
on the battle-field that they had conquered the fierce Celt. 
Their victory was achieved, slowly and painfully, in the 
daily battle of life, in a silent but unceasing strife, not by 
the strong hand and the bloody sword, but by the power 
of a superior will and a better mind. Their energy and 
their stubbornness carried the day! The brilliant but 
unsteady and easily wearied Celt was no match for their 
unceasing perseverance. For a time, the two races lived 
apart and yet alongside of each other, the Briton under 
the shelter of his fortified towns, the legacy of his Roman 
masters, the Saxon in the open country, where " he loved to 



20 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

hear the lark sing." Scanty as their intercourse was, it 
led, in the order of nature, to a gradual mingling of races 
and exchange of words. Saxon princes appear under 
Celtic names, and Celtic tools became known by Saxon 
titles. After a while the weaker disappeared step by step, 
whilst the stronger, growing apace, not only spread from 
district to district, but also worked its way slowly to a 
common unity. By the time the miscalled Heptarchy came 
to an end, and the Saxon sovereignties were all united in 
the person of Egbert, the Saxons had conquered. Their 
enemies were driven to remote mountains and inaccessible 
morasses in the far off corners of the land, and with them 
their speech also disappeared. Even the few Celtic words, 
that had been temporarily grafted on the Saxon, withered 
again as they received no more nourishment from the 
parent stem, and soon Saxon stood alone as the national 
tongue of England. 

But the rule of the Saxon, also, did not long remain 
undisturbed, for as the weak Britons had fallen an easy 
prey to the bold Saxons, so the disunited Saxons suc- 
cumbed in their turn to the Normans. Those bold warriors 
and daring sailors, who according to the Chronicle of St. 
Gallen had already in the days of Charlemagne passed the 
Straits of Gibraltar, and whom Charles the Bald had sent 
out of France, not with steel, which might have kept them 
away, but with seven thousand pounds of silver, that but 
served to invite them again, subsequently crossed the 
channel and won all the fair lands of England in a single 
day. They triumphed at Hastings, and without mercy and 
without ceremony they made themselves masters of the 
land. The Domesday Book shows us now, how the broad 
acres, the lofty castles, and even the fair daughters of the 
Saxon nobles were given away with lavish liberality to 
Norman knight and Flemish weaver, to the brave in purple 
born and to the cunning adventurer from foreign lands. 
But there was that in the Saxon people which made them 



ENGLISH ELEMENTS. 21 

live even when almost crushed by their fierce masters ; 
there was a spirit in their language which preserved it 
from destruction, when utter extinction seemed almost 
inevitable. 

The nature of the conquest, moreover, aided the process 
of reconstruction. In the first invasion the Anglo-Saxons 
had thrown themselves upon the British isles as the object 
of their hostility, as well as of their cupidity. They had 
made them their own by the simple process of clearing the 
land of its occupants, killing those who resisted, and driving 
away those who preferred flight to destruction. This was 
the conquest of barbarism. Very different was that of the 
Normans. They knew too well the value of their colossal 
booty to expose it to ruin, and they appreciated fully the 
necessity of preserving the living intelligence and the 
matured skill which had produced its material wealth. 
Their conquest consisted simply in the subjugation of the 
people to a foreign government. There was no barbarism 
here. Both nations, the conquered and the conquering, 
were far advanced in civilization ; the^ English boasting of 
a literature several centuries oM and a church unsurpassed 
in splendor and in learning, the French, though of more 
recent date, already famous among the nations of the earth, 
for their skill in arms and in arts. Besides, the Conqueror 
had taken care to have his title well established in the 
minds of many Englishmen even, and to be sanctioned by 
the express approval of the Church. His friends in Eng- 
land were probably not less numerous or powerful than the 
Whigs who brought over his namesake six hundred years 
later. All these causes combined to rob the conquest 
of much of its ordinary destructiveness, and to prepare 
a speedy coalition between the two races thus brought in 
contact. 

The only danger that threatened the English race and 
their language, was the necessity which forced the Con- 
queror to surrender his new subjects to more or less spolia- 



22 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

tion for the sake of rewarding those who had aided him in 
his enterprise. Thus the balance of power was at once 
destroyed, and the small number of foreigners enabled to 
outweigh the vast majority of native English. The social 
system of the latter being utterly disorganized, their speech 
and their culture also went down, while French culture 
advanced and flourished. This was, however, the work of 
ages only. In the mean time, and before the combination 
of the two distinct forces could be brought about, the oft- 
repeated lesson was once more taught, that the strong arm 
must bend before the strong mind. Triumphant Eome 
had sat at the feet of enslaved Greece, and the haughty 
conquerors of Spain had bowed low before the poets of 
Italy, when they held the land in chains. So here, also, the 
conqueror soon had to admit the supremacy of the con- 
quered native, and quietly, without war or rebellion, the 
parts were exchanged. " In the time of Kichard I.," we 
are told by the greatest historian of our day, " the ordinary 
imprecation of a Norman gentleman was : May I become 
an Englishman ! His ordinary form of indignant denial 
was : Do you take me for an Englishman ? The descend- 
ant of such a gentleman, a hundred years later, was proud 
of the English name." The fact was that, for a time, there 
were three distinct languages spoken in England: Latin 
was the language of the Church, French that of the Court, 
and Saxon alone was used by the people. The latter, 
never forsook their precious birthright ; they cherished 
and guarded the tongue of their fathers like a sacred 
inheritance, and around the hearth not a word was heard, 
from the beginning, that could remind -them of the hated 
Conqueror. Nunneries, also, were founded, like that of 
Tavistock, where it was appointed that some should be 
taught the knowledge of the Saxon tongue on purpose to 
preserve it and transmit it to posterity by communicating 
it, man to man and one generation to another. A few 
centuries passed away and, thanks to Saxon freedom and 



ENGLISH ELEMENTS. 23 

Saxon vigor, the two races sat side by side in the House of 
Commons, and a new language had been formed, rude yet 
and unpolished, but already foreshadowing its approaching 
greatness. 

These, then, are the two principal elements of our Eng- 
lish, — the Saxon of our oldest forefathers and the French of 
our Norman conquerors. But there are other idioms, that 
have largely contributed to swell the number of our words 
and to fashion our grammar and syntax. We have already 
spoken of the Celtic, which has given us but few words, 
most of which are not found in Anglo-Saxon and must, 
therefore, have come in at a later period. They are now 
met with principally in the dialect of Lancashire, where a 
considerable population of Celts must have remained after 
the Saxon Conquest, and it is highly interesting to note, 
that where these terms are still in use, there also the excita- 
ble and mercurial temper of the Celt still contrasts with 
the stubborn perseverance and sturdy self-reliance of the 
German descendant. Sound and syntax were but little 
affected by the Celtic. It may have given to certain Eng- 
lish words the exceptional pronunciation which we notice 
in tough and enough, and in the construction of our sen- 
tences it has probably bequeathed to us the power to omit 
the relative pronoun, as when we say, The man I saw, 
instead of, The man whom I saw, together with the great 
repugnance to use reflexive pronouns, which characterizes 
modern English. 

The Danes, who for a time were masters of England and 
seated their kings upon the throne, were less civilized than 
their subjects, and adopted the language of the superior 
race, so that but few English words can really be traced to 
Danish influence. The relation between the two idioms 
was very different from what might have been expected 
under the circumstances. It showed, a second time in the 
history of our language, that the pen ever triumphs over 
the sword, the olive over the laurel, mental culture over 



24 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

barbarous violence, the written language over the spoken. 
The Danes had neither literature nor grammar. Hence 
their influence on English was only repressive and destruc- 
tive. They abhorred difficult and subtle inflexions, and 
thus deprived the Anglo-Saxon of much lumber of that 
kind. So far from fashioning or affecting in any way the 
vernacular of their subjects, their own language at home 
declined from the day on which it came into contact with 
Saxon. Their court was often in England, their army lay 
there many years, and all laws and public acts, relating to 
England, were published in Anglo-Saxon. Thus even their 
chieftains and nobles could introduce but a single title into 
the conquered land, that of Earl, from the Danish Yarl, but 
that nobleman's wife resumed at once the Norman name of 
Countess. How little the Saxon nobles were willing to sub- 
mit to such a yoke, may be seen from the spirited resolu- 
tions they passed immediately after the death of Hardica- 
nute. No Dane, they agreed, should from that time be 
permitted to reign over England ; all Danish soldiers in 
any city, town, or castle should be either killed or banished 
from the kingdom, and whoever should from that time dare 
to propose to the people a Danish sovereign should be 
deemed a traitor to government and an enemy to his coun- 
try. A people that gave vent to such sentiments was not 
likely to adopt many words or to borrow many expressions 
from a hated master whom they no longer obeyed. A few, 
like forse in the sense of waterfall, and gill for a rocky 
ravine, have never been used in classical English until 
Wordsworth made them familiar words. 

By the side of the unimportant contributions thus made 
by Celt and Northman, the additions we owe to Latin as- 
sume gigantic proportions and deserve separate treatment. 
Other idioms also came in to swell the mighty host. In 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth Italian phrases abounded, and 
old Fortunatus tells us that in 1624 — 



ENGLISH ELEMENTS. 25 

"Fantastic compliment stalks up and down 
Trick'd in outlandish feathers, all his words, 
His looks, his oaths, are all ridiculous, 
All apish, childish, and Italianate." 

Under James and Charles it was the Spanish which framed 
the style of courtesy, and left us many allusions to grave 
dons and mighty grandees. In the days of Charles II. 
again, the nation and the language became equally French- 
ified, and our own generation, led by great masters of way- 
ward taste, borrows more largely from German than pru- 
dence and patriotism would seem to warrant. 

On the whole it may be said, however, that every foreign 
element now has its own domain in English. Latin still 
furnishes us with theological technicalities, Greek with the 
majority of metaphysical terms ; German is the language 
of mineralogy and of parts of geology ; the fashions claim 
naturally French as their vehicle, and, oddly enough, share 
it with the science of war, whilst mathematics use Latin, 
Greek, French, and Arabic in fraternal union. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LATIN IN ENGLISH. 

Latin seems to have been determined, from early times, 
to obtain a footing in England and to lord it over her sons, 
as it had done triumphantly in France and in Spain, in 
Italy and in many an Eastern province. It never found a 
hearty welcome there, but no sooner was one attack suc- 
cessfully resisted by the sturdy islanders, than it returned 
to the charge. It came under all forms and at all times, 
now armed with the sword and escorted by the invincible 
legions of ancient Rome ; then, bearing the cross aloft and 
swelling in anthem and hymn. A few generations later it 
followed the Conqueror in his victorious march, and for a 
time ruled supreme ; later it reappeared in the train of 
fashion or claimed admittance under the guise of deep 
learning. Our English entered not into bitter warfare, nor 
did it churlishly close its door against the often unwelcome 
intruder. It did not submit, however, but quietly resumed 
its supremacy, admitting so much of the foreign element as 
was good and useful for its own great national purposes, 
and rejecting the surplus by the simple force of good taste 
and common sense. Thus it maintained its independence, 
gained largely in words and in terms, but never troubled 
itself to translate, — as the Germans do now with pedantic 
purism, by which after all but half of the sense is caught, — 
but rather preferred most sensibly to admit the foreigners 
and to naturalize them in accordance with their own native 
sound and use. 

The first time that Latin touched the shores of the Brit- 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 27 

ish isles, it entered probably under the auspices of the great 
Caesar, when he appeared there for a month in the year 55. 
In the following year he landed once more and remained a 
longer time, forcing the British leaders to surrender, and 
carrying off several native princes as hostages. Still, 
throughout the Augustan era, Roman civilization and re- 
finement were unknown to Britain, and no trace of their 
conquest remains visible. It was Claudius who first could 
glory in conquering the Britons, for " Julius Caesar did no 
more than show them to the Romans." Even when this 
Emperor had received the honor of a triumph and the title 
of Britannicus for his success in the distant islands, the 
arms of the Romans had not yet penetrated beyond the 
southern parts of Britain. The subjugation was not com- 
pleted until the age of Tacitus, when his distinguished 
father-in-law, Agricola, after having overrun the whole 
island far beyond the Firth, and after having sailed round 
it to reduce the Orkneys also, conquered it finally. Then 
followed the days of Roman rule, during which the country 
became studded with flourishing cities and with numerous 
towns and villas, in all of which Latin was spoken and Ro- 
man arts and civilization were known. Theatres and am- 
phitheatres abounded, public baths were provided, and the 
gods of Rome as well as foreign deities had their temples 
in larger cities. The reaction, it is well known, came 
sooner than could well have been expected. The great 
empire was shaken in its foundations ; fierce, mysterious 
barbarians came from the far East to claim the sceptre of 
the world for their race, province after province was lost, 
and the old, tried legions of Rome had to return to pro- 
tect Italy itself from the invader. Thus Hadrian was 
already compelled to abandon all the land between the 
Solway and the Clyde, and between the Tyne and the Frith 
of Forth, and to build the great wall against the Picts. In 
418, the Anglo-Saxon chronicle tells us, there was not a 
Roman left on the island. 



28 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Whatever may have been, in those days, the success of 
Latin on the Continent, it was comparatively powerless in 
England. There it drove out the Celtic, resisted success- 
fully its great rival the German, and lived anew in French 
and Spanish. In England it never superseded the old 
Gaelic, and, in its turn, readily succumbed to the Saxon. 
Macaulay explains this striking difference by the opinion, 
that " it is not probable that the islanders were at any time 
generally familiar with the language of their Italian rulers." 
But there were other reasons, besides, which aided the 
Celtic in holding its own. The Romans lived almost ex- 
clusively in fortified^ towns, many of which bear, to this 
day, their Latin name; whilst in the country Celtic re- 
mained prevalent, and, after the withdrawal of the foreign 
legions, resumed its supremacy. Then it must not be for- 
gotten, that whilst might and valor were on the side of the 
Romans, civilization and intelligence were with the Britons. 
The Irish Celts were not only superior to all others of their 
race, but actually sent out teachers and missionaries to the 
adjoining countries. In the beginning of the fifth century 
Christianity was already prevailing among them all, and 
had brought with it classic refinement and culture. Little 
Latin, therefore, in our English, can be traced directly to 
this first invasion ; the essential and genuine contributions 
to our words are limited to three : colonia, which survives 
mainly in local names ; castrum, in castle and Chester ; and 
stratum, in those compounds in which it is not more clearly 
traceable to a similar word of the Anglo-Saxon. 

Far more threatening in its aspect, and infinitely more 
permanent in its influence, was the introduction of Latin 
by means of the Church of Rome. The primitive British 
Church was a branch of the great Celtic Church which, 
planted as early as the first ages in the South of Gaul, ex- 
tended rapidly into Ireland, and from there into Wales, the 
Western Isles, and many parts of Southern Britain. The 
zeal and the piety of this Celtic Church were so great as 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 29 

to earn for Ireland the title of Insula Sanctorum, but their 
learning was by no means in proportion, and hence priests 
and officials generally came from the older churches in 
Southern Europe. Thus already, in the sixth century, we 
find Roman ecclesiastics formally installed in England ; and 
in the church and the convent, among priests and among 
laymen, Latin had become the only language in which 
matters of faith were transacted. Their prayers, their 
chants, and their books, were, for a time, all in Latin. Un- 
fortunately, the early Anglo-Saxon Church did not use a 
Latin taken from the classic authors of Rome, but they 
sought their words in the Origines of Isidore, and in other 
writings of the same class. They affected, moreover, es- 
pecially barbarous compounds from the Greek, like elee- 
mosynary, which still survives with its seven syllables, 
though the noun has shrunk, through the Anglo-Saxon 
form almesse, into the monosyllabic alms. Nor was this un- 
desirable form of Latin easily gotten rid of; we feel its 
sad, demoralizing effects, even at this day. For through 
the overwhelming influence of the Church, and its long, 
undisputed sway, the whole system of theology in England 
had become, as it were, incorporated in Latin, and this to 
such an extent that even the English Reformers could 
communicate by no other means than Latin with the foun- 
tain-head at Rome, or with their teachers and brethren on 
the Continent. The vast mass of monkish literature, the 
countless religious essays, the fabulous chronicles of those 
days, and the few interspersed satires that have been 
handed down to us, all are written in the barbarous Latin 
found in the Fathers of the Church. This was the more 
pernicious, as a large number of these so-called Latin 
terms had themselves not long ago been derived from the 
Greek, because of the great influence of the Greek 
Church in the early days of Christianity. Some of these 
are still in existence, and used in connection with the 
Church, as — 



30 



STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 



Cheek. 


£a*m. 


Anglo-Saxon 


English, 


itA^pt/co?, 


clericus, 


cleric, 


clerk. 


t^aAAco, 




psalm, 


psalm. 


e\er)fx.o(Tvvy) } 




almesse, 


alms. 


Kvpia/oj, 




cyrice, 


church. 


irpeo-PvrepoSj 






presbyter, 


Sia/?aAAw, 


diabolus, 


deofol, 


devil. 


e7Uo-Korros, 


episcopus, 


bisceop, 


bishop. 


(XOVOLKOS ( ? ), 


monacus, 


munuc, 


monk. 



Many of these terms can be traced back to their early 
introduction into English, none perhaps farther than the 
last mentioned. It occurs in the unique specimen of a 
song composed by Canute the king, as he was one day 
rowing on the Nen, when the holy music from the minster 
of Ely came floating on the air and over the water. It so 
touched the hearts of the people, that the historian, to 
whose care we owe the precious fragment, tells us that it 
was " until to-day publicly sung in choirs and repeated in 
proverbs." It runs thus : — 

" Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely 
Tha Cnut ching rew (rowed) there by: 
Roweth, cnihtes, noer the lant (land) 
And here (hear) we thes muneches saeng." 

As will be seen from these examples, most of the Latin 
words so formed and borrowed, were made anew for Church 
purposes, and are, therefore, not to be found in classic 
Latin. They are almost all nouns ; we find only a few 
adjectives in English that can be traced back to this earli- 
est source of Latin, and the still rarer verbs are generally 
of doubtful origin. Among those that were not derived 
from the Greek we find again some that really existed in 
the works of classic authors, and others which belonged 
exclusively to the barbarous forms of later, corrupt Latin. 
Some of the latter, almost offensive in their disguise, are 
still to be found in the Parson's Tale of Chaucer as ao 
cidia, contimax, savacioun, and penitentia ; others appear 
slightly transformed, as celestial, disordinate, elacioun, and 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 31 

pertinacie. A much larger number have adopted better 
forms, and are now fully naturalized. Such words, derived 
directly from Latin, without having first passed through the 
French, are, e. g. : 

pundus, pound. . propositus, provost. 

moneta, mynet, mint. 1 missa {est congregatio), mass. 

ancora, anchor. corona, crown. 

petroselinum, parsley. Jicus, fig (tree). 

ftbrifuga, feverfew. piper, pepper. 

pumex, pumice (stone). versus, verse. 

pallium, pall. prima, prime (service in the 

prmdicare, preach. morning). 

candela, candle. regula, rule. 

To the same class belong also our minster, porch, cloister, 
saint, parish, the names of the elephant, the lion, and the 
camel, and of all our months. 

When we consider the paramount power of the church 
in those days, the strong hold it had not only on the con- 
sciences but also on the minds of men, as the sole guardian 
of all learning and useful knowledge, and the wisdom with 
which such means were used for the purpose of controlling 
the people, the small number of Latin words which the 
English owes to this source appears quite surprising. We 
must not forget, however, that religion was with the Saxon 
race ever the bright reflection of patriotism. They were 
obedient children of the church, but they insisted, early 
and perseveringly, upon the right of worshiping God after 
their own manner, in their own tongue. Hence the sturdy 
independence of the nation even in matters of faith, and 
the early dissensions within the English church. Many of 
the most famous missionaries the world knows were ex- 
pelled priests of England, men branded by the followers of 
Augustine, who went as true heralds of salvation abroad, 
and rooted Christianity in most parts of Europe. Hence 

1 The first silver money was coined at Rome 482 A. U. G. ; the mint was 
in the Temple of Juno Moneta, and this circumstance occasioned the origin 
of our word " money." — Eooke's Rome. 



32 STUDIES m ENGLISH. 

also the preference the people early showed for priests of 
their own race, who knew no other law and no other 
tongue but that of their Saxon fathers. Roman law was 
almost unknown among the Saxons. Canon law, based 
upon the former, took root but slowly, and thus many of 
the most important features of the Church of Rome were 
adopted but late in the distant island. Even spiritual 
weapons lose some of their force so far from the authority 
that wields them, and the wise moderation of Rome no 
doubt allowed her unruly sons much time to fall into the 
ranks. As a proof of this it may be mentioned that celi- 
bacy was unknown in England until a late period, and that 
during the whole time that Anglo-Saxons ruled over the 
island, the sacrament was administered in both forms. But 
what prevented Latin most from influencing our English more 
largely then, was the fact that for a long time the tongue of 
the church was the mother tongue. England produced the 
first Bible version in the vernacular ; countless homilies and 
prayers, hymns and psalms were written in English, and 
the greater part of the ritual even was Saxon. Thus it is 
that the marriage service of the modern Episcopal church, 
with its hearty sound, and simple sterling substance, is 
almost identical yet with that used by the early church. 
Thus also was laid in darkest days the foundation for the 
sturdy Protestantism of the English people, and their 
independence of Rome ; so that, when in later days the 
Reformers sought for weapons abroad and at home to fight 
the great battle of Liberty, they found in these Saxon 
writings almost all the theological views for which they 
contended, proving among other things that the Scriptures 
had, from the beginning, been read in the vulgar, and not 
in the Latin tongue, by a truly catholic people. 

Nor ought it to be overlooked, that the Anglo-Saxons 
had terms for many of the doctrines and rites of Chris- 
tianity long before the corresponding words of Latin origin, 
— a fact which is justly referred to as a proof of the early 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 33 

independence of the British church. Thus they used full- 
tan, from which our fuller, to wash white or to purify, for 
" baptize ; " aerist, rising, for resurrection ; homing -cniht, a 
learning youth, for disciple ; and bispel, a by-tale, the German 
Beispiel, for parable, — words which in simplicity and clear- 
ness far surpass the modern terms of foreign origin. Even 
as late as Wickliife's Bible version, we find unworschip for 
dishonor, provynge for experience, hyndli for natural, folkis 
for nations, forthenkynge for repentance, agenstendan for 
resist, and agenrysing for resurrection, — all of them words 
which would answer their purpose almost as well in our 
day, and have the great advantage of being intelligible not 
to the educated only but to the masses alike. 

It is to these characteristic features of our Saxon fore- 
fathers that we must mainly ascribe the comparative free- 
dom of their and our language from a larger admixture of 
Latin. As neither clergy nor royalty disdained in England 
to use the vernacular, their example was soon followed 
by influential persons. Thus Anglo-Saxon was developed 
and protected against the baneful influence of dead lan- 
guages, and grew rich even in prose-writings, at a time 
when in kindred Germany the mother tongue was de- 
spised or little esteemed, and when everywhere else Latin 
was considered the only language fit for subjects of graver 
import or of sacred nature. 

A third time Latin came and claimed admittance into 
the English language, and now as at first by the brutal right 
of the stronger, though under a new disguise. The Norman- 
French, when they won the day at Hastings and awoke on 
the next morning masters of all England, brought with 
them their French, a bastard child of ancient Latin. 
They prescribed its use by stringent laws, they crammed 
it down the throats of their subjects with the point of the 
sword. For a time it seemed triumphant. The king and 
his followers, the courts of justice, the haughty barons and 
the insolent soldiers — they all spoke Latin-French, and 
3 



34 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

would listen to no other tongue. The Saxons learned it 
from a sense of duty, from ambition, often even from 
hatred. Vanity also aided the new language, and this 
motive extended even to the lowliest peasants, of whom 
an ancient writer tells us that even the boors, in order 
to appear more respectable, used French terms by pref- 
erence. 1 

With all the prestige of a conqueror's language, with all 
the immense pressure it must have exerted on the subju- 
gated and ill-treated people, the Norman-French did not 
long maintain its power, nor even its independence. Once 
more the master had to learn from the servant, and ere 
three centuries had passed the relative position of French 
and of Saxon was reversed and the latter once more tri- 
umphant. Soon after the great plague in 1348, the fate of 
Norman-French as a national tongue was decided; from 
that year even the usual translations of Saxon into French 
were omitted by schoolmasters, and ere long a law for- 
bade the granting of ecclesiastic preferments to any but 
English -born subjects. When Gower wrote his poor French 
verses, he had at least the grace to ask pardon. 

" Si jeo n'ai de francois la faconde 
Pardonetz moi que jeo de ceo forsvoie 
Jeo suis Englois ; si quiere par tele voie 
Estre excuse." 

It is true that with the victories and conquests of Ed- 
ward III. in France, the French element once more gained 
strength, and deriving fresh force from the fountain-head 
threatened, for a time, to become all powerful in England. 
It was then that French words were brought over by whole 
cargoes — Integra verborum plaustra — and put up to pub- 
lic approbation by the great writers of the time. Courtly 
Chaucer showed the influence of this wholesale importation 
by his preponderance of French words, though he has, per- 

1 "Rurales homines — ut per hoc spectabiliores videantur, francigenari 
satagunt omni visu." — Higden, Polychron, p. 210, Ed. Gale. 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 35 

haps unconsciously, his sly hit at those who spoke French 
after home fashion, in the lines : — 

c * Ther was also a rionne, a Prioresse, 
That of hire smiling was full simple and coy . . . *. 
And frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisl} r , 
After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, 
For frenche of Paris was to here unknown." 

Canterbury Tales, 118. 

This new infusion came, however, too late to affect the 
language in its essential features. The many new verbs 
and nouns and adjectives made by the father of English 
poetry did not, by any means, become permanently parts of 
the language: some dwindled away and have long since 
disappeared forever, whilst others took hold of the nation's 
mind and preluded 

c { Those melodious streams that fill 
The spacious times of great Elizabeth 
With sounds that echo still." 

It is, therefore, not difficult to understand why this in- 
vasion should have been comparatively harmless, as far 
as pure, classic Latin was concerned. The admixture of 
modified Latin, in its Norman-French form, was of course 
important alike in quantity and general influence. Thus 
Sir John Mandeville, who to be sure " put his boke out 
of Latyn into Frensche and translated it agen out of 
Frensche into Englysche," uses, as Mr. Marsh informs us, 
a larger proportion of Latin and French words than any 
other poet of his country. From the careful and accurate 
investigation of that eminent American scholar it appears 
that a single work of this writer exhibits an addition of 
about fourteen hundred words of Latin origin to the vocab- 
ulary of the previous century ! The fact was, that the 
Anglo-Saxon had lost its flexibility, and with it the power 
to adapt itself to the new regime, and thus the common 
necessities of the people called for the introduction of so 
many Latin or Romance words into English. The blame for 
this so-called corruption of the vernacular has often been 



36 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

laid upon the poets of that age, but without justice. They 

only used the language as they found it. 

All the more remarkable is it, that no Romance inflection 

penetrated into English. Except in a few words, it is even 

difficult in the extreme, from the form alone, to tell which 

words came directly from the Latin and which through 

the French. When Anglo-Saxon writers use mint from 

moneta, and Norman authors have money from the same 

source, the decision is easy enough. But in the majority 

of cases the history of the word cannot be so certainly 

traced, and then we must content ourselves with the mere 

fact, that the same word exists twice in English, once in its 

original Latin form, and again in a French-Latin form. 

Instances of such twin-forms are : — 

factum, fact and feat. securus, secure and sure. 

/actio, faction and fashion. quietus, quiet and coy. 

tractus, tract and treat. zehsus, zealous and jealous. 

balsamum, balm and balsam. gentilis, genteel and gentle. 

persona, person and parson. legalis, loyal and legal. 
captivus, captive and caitiff. 

Pure Latin was still spoken and written, but by so limited 
a class of men, that its influence on the national tongue 
was neither important at the time nor permanent in its 
effects. This want of direct power was partly due to the 
gradual but decided deterioration of Latin itself. From 
the beginning of the thirteenth century, the decline and 
fall of elegant literature is clearly perceptible, and with it 
the rapid disappearance of classic learning. The habit of 
speaking Latin correctly and elegantly, so common before 
among the scholars of all lands, was generally lost, and 
even at the universities the classic tongue degenerated into 
a mere jargon, without grammar or syntax. It was the 
era when a new learning seized hold of the minds of men, 
and when all studious aspirants for fame bowed to the ab- 
solute sway of scholastic logic and metaphysics. The same 
enthusiasm prevailed throughout Christendom; all the in- 
tellects of Europe were in a ferment. Oxford counted, a 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 37 

hundred years later, thirty thousand students in her Uni- 
versity, and the number was probably even greater at Paris. 
Education and knowledge were diffused widely and liber- 
ally, but classic learning disappeared for a time, and with 
it the power and the happy influence of Latin. 

A more distinct, and, to some extent, brilliantly success- 
ful attempt to introduce Latin, was made in the days of 
Queen Elizabeth. From the time of her accession to the 
Restoration, the study of Greek and Latin was once more 
quite general in England, and the majority of authors were 
thorough scholars in both languages ; very naturally, there- 
fore, a large number of Latin words then found their way 
into English. " The unlearned or foolish fantastical," says 
Thomas Wilson, in his " System of Rhetoric and Logic," 
published 1533, "that smells but of learning (such fellows 
as have seen learned men in their days), will so Latin their 
tongues that the simple cannot but wonder at their talk, 
and think surely they speak by some revelation." " If 
elegancy still proceedeth," says Sir Thomas Browne, him- 
self one of the greatest speechmongers, " and English pens 
maintain that stream we have of late observed to flow from 
many, we shall, within a few years, be fain to learn Latin 
to understand English, and a work will prove of equal 
facility in either." 

This was the age of adventure and experiment, not only 
on the high seas in search of new continents, or in the 
realms of science and faith, to discover new doctrines and 
creeds, but in language also. The whole world of antiquity, 
with its riches in words as well as in wisdom, was suddenly 
thrown open to all ; no guide pointed out the way, no bar- 
riers limited the range of thought or taste, and the use to 
be made of these large treasures was left to the inexpe- 
rienced direction of perplexed writers. A perfect flood of 
new words, mostly but half understood, inundated England, 
and formed with the good old Saxon words a jargon which, 
unhappily for the taste of those days, was hailed as a model 



38 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

of melody and refinement. Many writers of that time 
considered it a matter of national pride to imitate the 
scholars of the continent, who knew no other language 
but Latin for science and literature, and English was once 
more threatened with entire destruction. 

The number of Inkhorn-Terms, as the words they man- 
ufactured were then called, was as great as their form was 
uncouth. We may well be grateful, that good taste and 
good sense have relieved us from words like the following, 
which were then in use among contemporary writers : — 
Subsanuation, ludibundness, septenfluous, disincorporate, 
discerptibility, septentrionality, incomprehensibility, and su- 
pervacuousness. The contrast of these magnificent and 
grandiloquent terms with the " native woodnotes wild " of 
simple Saxon, is generally rather a melancholy one, but it be- 
comes at times quite ludicrous. Thus Jeremy Taylor, speak- 
ing of the bruising of the serpent's head, calls it, " the con- 
trition of the serpent,'' and, as Bishop Heber notices, after 
having substituted excellent for surpassing, speaks consist- 
ently but absurdly, of a sinner as feeling " excellent pain." 

This practice of using Latin, which had been brought 
in mainly since the reign of James I., was subsequently 
carried to still greater excess by the Puritans. It was this 
abuse which the keen satire of Butler ridiculed in the lines : 

" For when he pleased to show 't, his speech 
In loftiness of sound was rich, 
A Babylonish dialect, 
Which learned pedants much affect. 
7 T was English cut on Greek and Latin, 
Like fustian heretofore on satin." 

Hudibras, Pt. I. c. i. 91. 

The words that the wise Bacon and the brave Raleigh 
spoke, are almost the only ones of those days that were 
free from such barbarism. Nobly and manfully struggling 
against the current, and despising an absurd fashion, they 
abstained from the formation of such Latinized words. 
But the most brilliant example of success in pure English, 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 39 

under such trying circumstances, is found in the writings 
of the bosom friend of Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, of 
whom Ben Jonson says that, " his works were considered 
as models of pure and elegant style ; " whilst Hallam calls 
them, " the first example of good English language ; pure 
and conspicuous, well chosen, without vulgarism or pedan- 
try." Many of his sentences, we are confident, would even 
now be considered models of chaste and elegant English. 
Other writers, however, resisted the current less success- 
fully, and even the warmest admirers of Milton can hardly 
venture to excuse his extravagant fondness for Latin, which 
could lead him to write lines like these : — 

" With keen dispatch 
Of real hunger and concoetive heate 
To transubstantiate ; what redounds transpires 
Through spirits with ease." 

Paradise Lost, v. 436. 

We must bear in mind, however, that pedantry was all- 
popular for the time, and that if divines and philosophers 
could destroy a language it would certainly have been done 
then. The good sense of the people, and a returning con- 
sciousness of the superiority of the mother tongue, caused 
them, fortunately, soon to drop words which could already 
be found in English as brief and as forcible. Such were, 
for instance, Jeremy Taylor's coinings of funest (sad), 
respersed (scattered), deturpated (deformed), clancularly 
(stealthily), correption (rebuke), intenerate (soften), whilst 
others which were used incorrectly, like the same writer's 
immured for encompassed, extant for standing out, inso- 
lent for unusual, contrition for bruising, and irritation for 
making void, were never allowed to pass current. 

Besides, a large number of these words were torn up 
from the Latin and transplanted into English, like flowers 
and branches into children's gardens, without ever taking 
root, and thus they soon disappeared. Those only that 
were really useful remained, and were duly naturalized in 
the course of time, and the happy effect of the incorpora 



40 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

tion of such terms into our English will be easily under- 
stood. 

The Anglo-Saxon, mainly given to sensible objects, has 
from the beginning been sadly wanting in abstract terms. 
Philosophy and science were comparatively unknown to its 
exchequer of words, and the arts appeared almost exclu- 
sively under foreign names. These wants were now sup- 
plied, and this accession was all the more welcome as there 
was a full tide of knowledge rolling in upon the reawaken- 
ing minds of those days, which soon overflowed the narrow 
channel of the language. But it was also then for the first 
time perceived what irreparable injury had been done to 
the mother tongue by its temporary subjugation. It had 
lost, whilst under the baneful control of the Norman- 
French, that plastic character, that power of adapting 
itself to new ideas and forming new words, which it origi- 
nally possessed in common with all Teutonic languages, and 
which the German has successfully preserved to this time. 
In the new order of things, therefore, it could not keep 
pace ; it had lost its pliancy, and with it the power to fol- 
low new modes of thought. In this necessity to create 
new terms in order to express new ideas, the Latin proved 
eminently useful, and readily supplied what was wanting 
in Saxon. Hence it is that, to this day, the Saxon words 
of our English have to do with the sensible world, foreign 
words with the spiritual ; the former stand for things par- 
ticular and concrete, the latter for things general and ab- 
stract. "Where this does not seem to be the case, two terms 
are apt to present themselves for one and the same idea. 

For the Latin of the Norman-French enriched our 
tongue, not only with new words, but also with many syno- 
nyms, both of which now express one and the same idea 
with apparently slight, but in reality quite important differ- 
ences of meaning, once by an Anglo-Saxon term, and then 
again by a French word. Hence, our English is peculiarly 
rich in synonyms, and in them possesses a power unequaled 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 41 

in other idioms. This is one of its most striking features, 
and all the more important, as these synonyms are not 
double names of the same object, which is the case in a 
few instances only, as in ox and beef, calf and veal, pig 
and pork, but mostly express delicate shades of emotions 
or passions. Nor ought we to overlook, in this connec- 
tion, the equally striking and suggestive fact that, whilst 
all the gentler emotions of love and kindly warmth are 
Saxon, the subtler and fiercer passions, jealousy and con- 
tempt, fervor and fury, bear French names. It is this that 
gives to our English such great moral expressiveness, and 
enabled Shakespeare to wield his marvelous power of 
clothing with living words so many of man's mysterious 
sympathies, and of showing us so much of his inner life. 

The words thus introduced into English w T ere generally 
pure Latin, and have changed, in the process of naturaliza- 
tion, nothing but their termination. All our nouns in tion, 
and cion, tor and lory, ity, ance, and ure, our adjectives in ary 
and ory, ic and ive, He and ible or able, our verbs in ate, 
act, ect, zct, and fy, belong to this class. Many verbs of 
the same period were, however, introduced in the form of 
their supines, and some being afterwards verbalized anew, 
have produced rather awkward forms. Such are : — 



abstraho, 


abstractum, 


adj. abstract, 


verb. 


i to abstract; 


accipio, 


acceptum, 






accept ; 


acuo, 


acutum, 


acute. 






advoco, 


adcocatum, 


subst. advocate, 




advocate ; 


ago, 


actum, 


subst. act, 




act; 


exago, 


exactum, 


adj. exact, 




exact; 


transago, 


transactum, 






transact ; 



and a host of others, all formed in the same manner. 

The influence of this Latin on the structure of our lan- 
guage is seen especially in the so-called periodic style, 
indulged in so largely by James Hooker, and, we must add, 
in connection with what has been said before of his poetry, 
by Milton in his prose. Dry den was certainly not unjust 
in accusing him of " Romanizing our tongue without com 



42 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

plying with its idiom," when his imitation of Roman mod- 
els could lead him to say, " The summer following, Titus 
then emperor, Agricola continually with inroads disquieted 
the enemy." — Hist, of England, Vol. II. This may be 
very good Latin, but it is most assuredly- very bad English. 
Still, the periodic style, when not carried too far, does not 
want its admirers even among modern writers. Many ap- 
plaud, and others try to imitate, the stately march and often 
majestic and organ-like harmony of Milton's prose. Cole- 
ridge spoke with rapture of its " difficult evolutions and sol- 
emn rhythm." 

With the Restoration, however, a thorough change com- 
menced; the periodic style gave way, and the simpler 
structure of our day took its place. At the same time, 
the great license of coining Latin derivatives also ceased, 
and English became substantially what it now is ; asperities 
only have been filed away since, barbarisms refined, and 
redundancies thrown out. It is also to be borne in mind 
that whilst on one side this great fondness for Latin terms 
and Latin structure was carried too far, and therefore was 
censured with justice, it had, on the other hand, a most 
beneficial influence on the English of those days. For 
the intimate contact with the graces of diction and style, 
so prodigally displayed in the pages of the great writers 
of Greece and Rome, could not fail, gradually but certainly, 
to improve the taste and to refine the style of English 
authors. They only failed when they aspired to copy clas- 
sical forms literally, and to transfer mechanically similar 
graces from one idiom into the other. Whenever they 
were content to imbibe the classic spirit of ancient writers 
and then to reproduce it, in conformity with the genius of 
the English language, they obtained great success. Even 
Milton occasionally uses Latin words with such tact and 
elegance as to show what great beauty may be found in 
them, and how much of the force of English must be at- 
tributed to them. Thus, in the beautiful lines — 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 43 

11 So from the root 
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves 
More aerie, last the bright, consummate floure." 

Paradise Lost, V. 478. 

The question has often been asked : " What good has 
the Latin done to our English ? " The happy effect of its 
addition to the Saxon element is seen in two great advan- 
tages which English has gained over all the sister languages. 

In the first place, English is the only one of all the 
European idioms which combines the two elements of the 
Classic and the Gothic, of ancient and of modern civiliza- 
tion, in such a manner that the Gothic forms the basis and 
the Latin the superstructure. In all other instances of a 
similar combination, as in the Romance languages, the 
Latin is invariably the principal and the governing element. 
By its own happy proportion, English can much more fully 
sympathize, through the overwhelming influence of its Gothic 
element, with modern thoughts and feelings, while it is per 
fectly familiar, through its treasures of classic origin, with 
the life of antiquity. In this connection it must not be 
overlooked, moreover, that whilst the Romance languages 
arose out of a struggle between classic Latin and a Gothic 
barbarism, which was at first utterly destructive, and pro- 
duced its good results only after many centuries, the Eng- 
lish arose out of an amalgamation of civilized Gothic with 
Norman French, which, so far from being barbarous, brought 
with it a culture in all the radiant bloom and buoyant pride 
of youth, and infused a new and higher life into native civ- 
ilization. 

The advantage thus obtained was not lost by any sub- 
sequent introduction of Latin, especially when such an 
addition was made by means of renewed efforts in science 
or art. As on the Continent, so also in England, the ser- 
vices of the Church, repeated in the same unchanging words 
since the first ages, kept up in the minds of the people even 
a dim, traditionary understanding of the classic language. 
We read of foreign ecclesiastics, who could not speak Eng- 



44 STUDIES m ENGLISH. 

lish, and preached in Latin — they could not be altogether 
unintelligible to their audiences. Men who could be moved 
to tears, and made to take the cross upon them by Latin 
sermons, may have been largely acted upon through their 
ears and their imaginations ; still they must have caught, 
here and there, a word or a phrase which they could un- 
derstand. Latin must have been heard, in those and long 
subsequent days, all over the land, and on a thousand occa- 
sions which now no longer exist. There were all the great 
teachers of universities, who lectured and taught in Latin, 
and all the students and scholars of monastic seminaries, 
who disputed and recited in Latin. Law and Physic in all 
their grades employed the same language, and countless 
hearers of these various teachers must have been found in 
every parish and in every village, from the parish priest to 
the wandering beggar, from the old man eloquent to the 
poor boy at his convent school. 

This thorough leavening of the vernacular with a classic 
element could not fail to have the happiest effect, and thus 
to produce the second great advantage English owes to 
its Latin element. For the refining influence of classic 
studies contributed with silent but irresistible power to the 
formation of modern English. It was through this agency 
mainly, that the two great elements of our language, the 
Anglo-Saxon and the Norman French, were reduced to 
greater uniformity, and could thus as readily be fused into 
one idiom as the two races who spoke them amalgamated, 
under the influence of wise political institutions, first in 
the House of Commons and then throughout the land, into 
one great nation. Thus our tongue was molded, at the 
same time, into greater elegance and harmony ; its deform- 
ities of foreign, undigested importations were cut off, and 
its uncouthness diminished. Finally, it may be added, our 
English has derived from the Latin, as the language of 
the Church in olden times and of science in more recent 
days, a peculiar coloring, a faint but unmistakable per- 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 45 

fume of classicity, which has never since been lost entirely, 
and is by no means one of its smallest charms. 

The mania for Latin terms, displayed at a later period 
by Pope and Johnson, could not interrupt the even course 
of development for any length of time ; the Essayists had 
too strong a hold on the mind of the people, and their style, 
always clear and elegant, rejected one after another the 
incongruous forms introduced from abroad. 

Their influence on the public taste cannot be over esti- 
mated, and it is a matter of just congratulation that Addison 
should, to this day, be a model for eminent writers. 

Strangely enough the only accusation of having intro- 
duced more Latin words into English, made since that time, 
has been directed against Americans. Among other 
charges, the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, the learned author 
of the well-known Glossary, rebukes them for nothing less 
than " making all the haste they conveniently can to rid 
themselves of the language " of England. He notices, as 
an evidence of this crime, certain innovations of this kind, 
collected from some recent publications, and mentions 
especially the words to memorialize, to advocate, to progress, 
the nouns a mean and grade, and the adjectives inimical 
and influential, as used in a moral sense. It need not be 
mentioned here, that all these terms are now in universal 
currency wherever English is spoken. But we cannot even 
claim to have originated them in our "heat of igno- 
rance, presumption, and barbarism ; " for most of them 
have been long in the language, and all the merit Ameri- 
cans can pretend to, is to have discovered valuable material 
that had been laid aside and was nearly forgotten. Thus 
to advocate is used by Milton, to progress occurs in Shake- 
speare, though as yet with the accent on the first syllable, 
and thus betraying its recent introduction, — 

" This honorable dew 
That leisurely doth progress on thy cheeks," 



46 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

and inimical is already inserted in Walker's Pronouncing 
Dictionary of 1772. 

Even our own day is not free from the silent intrusion 
of new Latin terms, though it is but just to add, that the 
majority of recent importations come to us through the 
German. Thus we have but recently become accustomed 
to speak of animus as an inner and generally bad motive, 
of cultus as a system of worship, of onus as the special 
burden of an argument, of status as the visible, political or 
social, condition of states and individuals, of curriculum as 
the appointed course of studies, of ultimatum in diplomacy 
and general negotiations, of a maximum and a minimum, 
and even in agriculture of humus for mold. 

Thanks to the general dissemination of education, and 
especially of a moderate but almost universal training in 
the classics, our own country is peculiarly active in nat- 
uralizing such Latin terms. Here even the masses have 
learned to understand, or at least instinctively to feel the 
meaning of words like extempore, sine qua non, status in 
quo, vice versa, cui bono, quid pro quo, sub rosa, and bona 
Jide. 

It may not be amiss, before leaving the subject of the 
true classic elements in our English, to refer at least in 
passing to the small admixture of genuine Greek terms 
which we use. Some of them still bear the impress of their 
foreign, pagan origin distinctly in their features ; others, 
however, have become so familiar even to the unlearned, 
that men would be not less surprised at hearing themselves 
accused of using Greek words, than Moliere's hero was 
flattered by the discovery that he had been speaking prose 
all his life. 

The paucity of pure Greek words of older date in Eng- 
lish must be partly at least attributed to the fact that the 
first introduction of Greek was received with great dis- 
trust and much apprehension. Western Europe, it must 
be remembered, knew literally nothing of it until the fall 



LATIN IN ENGLISH. 47 

of Constantinople ; and as late as the sixteenth century the 
learned men of England were perfectly satisfied with Latin 
translations of Aristotle, made not from the original, but 
from Arabic versions ! Greek quotations, which would occur 
now and then, were summarily dismissed with this marginal 
note : Grcecum est, legi non potest When the learned 
Grocyn first taught Greek at Oxford, under Henry VIIL, 
his lectures, delivered with great pomp, were looked upon 
as a highly dangerous and alarming innovation. The very 
sound of Greek appeared to the fastidious ear of English- 
men abominable, and such as " no Christian could endure 
to hear." Oxford w T as divided into Greeks and Trojans, 
who waged a fierce warfare with each other, and even ex- 
posed the great Erasmus, who had been a pupil of Grocyn 
and taught Greek after him, to personal insult and gross 
misrepresentation. 

Fashion, with its superior power, came soon afterwards 
to the aid of the* dangerous language, and the reign of 
Elizabeth was the age of learned ladies, who read and 
wrote Greek with surprising facility. A whole host of 
noble ladies, with Lady Jane Gray to lead the erudite pro- 
cession, vied with each other ; some merely enjoying the 
study of Greek, others making their knowledge useful by 
valuable translations. Who does not recollect the two 
Margarets, the bright luminaries of the household of Sir 
Thomas More, and the four wonderful daughters of Sir 
Anthony Cook ? " The maids of honor of Queen Elizabeth, 
for a "time," says Warton, "indulged their ideas of senti- 
mental affection in the sublime contemplation of Plato's 
Phaedo, and the Queen, who understood Greek better than 
the Canons of Windsor, and was certainly a much greater 
pedant than her successor, James I., translated ' Isocrates.' 
But this passion for the Greek language soon ended where 
it began, nor do we find that it improved the national taste 
or influenced the writings of the age of Elizabeth." This 
was naturally to be expected from a zeal which was simply 



48 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

the offspring of fashion ; but the small effect, which this 
prodigious learning had on the national tongue, is easily 
explained by the profound ignorance which prevailed at 
that time among the lower and many even of the middle 
classes. While a few young ladies at court read Greek, 
Shakespeare's father, an alderman at Stratford, appears to 
have been unable to write his name, and under a king who 
boasted of his thorough mastery over numerous tongues 
nine men out of ten were content to make their marks for 
a signature. 

The following words may, however, serve as examples 
of Greek terms, which have entered our language directly 
and without passing through the intermediate stage of a 
Latin translation : — 

XwAepa (disease), Cholera, choler, choleric, &c. 

'flpi^wv (bounding sight), Horizon, horizontal, &c. 

Alxw (tree-moss), Lichen. 

KarapaKTos (rushing down), 1 Cataract. 

HapaA-vo-ts (loosening), Paralysis, paralytic, &c. 

napa56|rj (outside of 56^), Paradox. So Orthodox, Heterodox, &c. 

Kavianri (tester against gnats), Canopy. 

Erjpdg (dry), Sere. 

"Ektclo-ls (standing outside), Extasy, extatic, &c. 

'Evepyela (in the work), Energy. 

Airovpy ela (public work), Liturgy. 

XetpovpyeZa (hand-word), Surgery vice Chirurgie. 

Besides these, many others are of course used in works 
of scientific import, numbers having found a home in the 
nomenclature of Natural Science. Our own day, teeming 
with new discoveries and fertile additions to our knowledge, 
fabricates a vast number of technical terms from the Greek 
— with the exception of a few German words, the only 
manufacture of additions to our vocabulary now going on. 
The majority of these terms, however, do not belong to the 
flesh and blood of our language, and require, therefore, 
here, no farther explanation. 

1 Used by Pliny X. 43, for two purposes: to denote a waterfall, and a 
eeabird, rushing down upon his prey — probably the Solan Goose. 



CHAPTER V. 

ENGLISH SOUNDS. 

" Words are the sounds of the heart." — Chinese Proverb. 

No one who has traveled abroad, or listened with atten- 
tive ear to foreigners, can have failed to notice that every 
language has its favorite sounds, so that the careful ob- 
server may, from these alone, distinguish at once the nation- 
ality of any unknown tongue. The pure air and mild cli- 
mate of Italy, the habit of her children to spend the largest 
portion of their lives in the open air, and their national 
endowment in point of music — all these are well repre- 
sented in the abundance of vowels, which characterizes the 
favored child of ancient Latin. The Frenchman makes 
himself at once known, and by no means always most pleas- 
antly, by his preference for nasal sounds — a taste which he is 
fond of ascribing to his descent from the old Romans, and 
which, it is true, was assiduously cultivated by the orators 
and elocutionists of Gaul. He is not a little proud of this 
gentle transition from consonant to vowel, which constitutes 
what he likes to call the musical element of his language. 
A French critic, Dupuis, went so far as to call these nasal 
sounds, from the analogy between the diatonic scale of 
vowels and the musical notes, the true bemols of the idiom. 
The German's "jaw-breaking" dentals are too often re- 
ferred to, justly and unjustly, to require illustration. We 
know much less of the palate-sounds of the Slavonic idi- 
oms, which generally require such excessive pliancy in all 
the organs of speech as to make it a comparatively easy 
4 



50 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

task for the races who use them to learn foreign tongues. 
This it is that enables the Russians in Paris to speak not 
only good, but actually better, French than the Parisians 
themselves. 

Our English has the sad privilege of being well known 
among the languages of the earth for the frequency of its 
hissing sounds. It has not only the direct means of pro- 
ducing it in the letters s, c, z, and th, but, as if not satisfied 
with these, it gives a kindred sound to numerous combina- 
tions of other letters. Thus Addison complains bitterly, 
that in his day there has taken place " the abbreviation of 
several words that are terminated in ' eth,' by substituting 
an s in the room of the last syllable, as in i drowns, walks, 
arrives,' and innumerable other words, which, in the pro- 
nunciation of our forefathers were, 'drowneth, walketh, 
arriveth.' This has wonderfully multiplied a letter which 
was before too frequent in the English tongue, and added 
to the hissing in our language." So grievous, indeed, is 
this unmusical abundance of sibilants, that more than one 
remedy has been suggested. But languages have a will 
of their own, as well as men, and no power on earth can 
mold them anew. Matters seem to have been worse yet, 
in former days, when lisping was apparently considered an 
accomplishment, for Chaucer tells us of his friar, that he 

" Somewhat lisped for his wantonness, 
To make his English sweet upon his tongue." 

Not only every language, however, has its own peculiar 
sounds, which constantly reappear and thus give a peculiar 
and unmistakable character to its utterance, but every dia- 
lect is again apt to have its own exclusive sounds. So. it 
is in England, and even in the United States, — the leveling 
process of universally diffused education and republican 
intermingling of the masses has not prevented a marked 
difference of utterance between the South and the North, 
the East and the West. In England, the contrast is, of 
course, more striking. For instance, the people of Devon- 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. * 51 

shire are famous for their spluttering, turgid enunciation, 
which suggests to the ear a tongue too large for the palate. 
Far more pleasantly sounds the monotonous, but soft and 
soothing drawling of Durham. Norfolk and Suffolk have 
a peculiar, almost inimitable sound, which can only be de- 
scribed as an attenuated whine. It is found again, slightly 
increased, in the famous " New England drawl," carried to 
Yankee-land by the later colonists, who followed the first 
Puritans, from Norfolk and Suffolk. These peculiarities 
have, however, not remained stationary in their first home 
in the New World, but followed the sons of the Puritans 
to New York and some of the Western States, receiving 
in each a new, peculiar imprint. The speech of Northum- 
berland is disfigured by a burr, and an exaggerated Scotch 
accent, for English becomes harsher and broader as it 
gradually moves farther northward, and even there the 
mountain regions have again still ruder and coarser sounds 
than the plains. Lancashire English sounds very much 
like Low-German, the broad Piatt Deutsch of the plains 
of Mecklenburg and Oldenburg. A boy from that county 
sent to school in Hamburg, landed on a very hot day, and 
finding servants who drew water from a fountain, said to 
them : " Will you give me a drink of water ? " The reply 
was : " Was sagt er ? " (What says he ?) He repeated his 
request slowly, and separating the words. " Du kannst 
trinken " (Thou canst drink) was at once the ready answer, 
and Modern Lancashire and Old German were soon at 
home with each other. 

The English of Northamptonshire, on the other hand, is 
singularly pure — an advantage the county probably owes 
to its central position. The best of all is said to be spoken 
between Huntington and Stamford. Already Fuller, the 
church historian, said of it : " The language of the common 
people is generally the best of any shire in England," be- 
cause a hard-laboring man of that county, although he had 
to acknowledge that certain words in. the psalms were 



52 ' STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

" above his comprehension," assured him that the last trans- 
lation of the Bible agreed fully with the common speech 
of the country. It is certain that many words of the " well 
of English undefiled" are still lingering in the home of 
Shakespeare and Dryden, and even now the most unedu- 
cated part of the people there speak excellent English. 

When the English traveler leaves his home to cross the 
ocean and comes to our shores, he is at once struck by 
peculiarities of utterance which give to his own tongue a 
somewhat foreign air. He is apt first of all to become ac- 
quainted with the nasal twang of the genuine Yankee in 
the New England States, which is likely to be familiar to 
his eye already through the amusing works of Judge Hali- 
burton. There is no denying that it is exceedingly un- 
pleasant to the ear of those who are not accustomed to it 
from early childhood. The South, on the contrary, is given 
to a slow, drawling utterance, thanks to a warm climate 
and indolent habits ; the vowels especially become very in- 
distinct and sound very differently from those of Northern 
men. The great West, again, has not only its own terms, 
but also a peculiar intonation, which may be the result of 
hard work, and of a life spent exclusively on the wide 
prairie or in the loud-echoing forest. 

Intimately connected with this preference which every 
language has for certain sounds, is of course a correspond- 
ing preference for certain letters. In every idiom not only 
certain combinations occur more frequently than others, 
but the individual letters are used or neglected in so strik- 
ing a manner that the type-setter can at once, and in fixed 
formulas, give the number of letters required to print in 
each language. Thus it is well known that the Latin had 
no aspirates, the Chinese has no d and r ; hence Europe 
is there JEJulope, Ya-me-li-ka is the name for America, and 
the name of Christ is disguised under the form of 
Ki-li-yse-tec. The Six Nations have no labials at all, so 
that they never articulate with their lips and cannot say 
Pa. 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. 53 

So averse, says Dr. Jonathan Edwards, are they to shut- 
ting their mouth, that they have even changed Amen into 
Awen ! They share this peculiarity with several other In- 
dian languages. The Society Islanders, on the other hand, 
have no gutturals, and Captain Cooke was to them Tute. 
Some native tribes of Brazil have neither /nor I nor r in 
their language, and hence the Portuguese accused them of 
being a barbarous people, without fe, ley, or rey, — that is, 
without faith, law, or king, in their language. 

The final result of this frequency of sounds and prefer- 
ence for certain letters, peculiar to each language, is repre- 
sented in its laws of euphony. These are as characteristic 
of each idiom as certain moral features are of each nation. 
Euphony, however, may be absolute, founded upon general 
and fundamental laws ; and as such it is, of course, common 
to all nations. It may, however, also be relative, inasmuch 
as it depends upon the climate, the occupation, and the 
general habits of a nation. Euphony may, to a certain 
extent, even be personal ; for many sounds appear harsh 
and unpleasant from some lips, and very different from 
others ; as generally foreign languages sound more agree- 
able to the ear when spoken by natives. Nor must we 
forget the influence of individuality in cases similar to that 
of Mortimer's wife, to whom he said — 

" Thy tongue 
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd, 
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower 
With ravishing division, to her lute." — Henry IV., Part I. 1. 

Applying the general laws of euphony to English, it 
cannot be denied that the language of our Anglo-Saxon 
forefathers was at first nothing better than the language of 
fierce, untamed barbarians, hemmed in by barbarians as 
savage as they were themselves, cut off from all inter- 
course with the rest of the world, and roving about as 
" sea-wolves " only to plunder and to destroy. Spending 
their lives in gloomy forests and on the fierce ocean, they 



54 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

were, like all northern nations under similar circumstances, 
given to stern, often morose, taciturnity. This disposition 
gave two peculiar features to their vernacular : it made it 
harsh and monosyllabic. Both these traits have been 
handed down to the English of our day. We cannot agree 
with Camden, who says, that " English possesses as much 
grandeur as Spanish, sweetness as Italian, delicacy as 
French, and energy as German." We may grant it 
energy, delicacy and grandeur, but it is not musical, it is 
not made for song like the Italian. What prevents this is 
that all its vowels are more or less dimmed, even when 
accented ; for there are but few, if any, that are clearly 
and distinctly pronounced, as in Southern languages, whilst 
the skeleton of consonants stands out bolder and barer 
with us than anywhere else. We have a compensation for 
this want of beauty in the strong vigor of our stock, which, 
if it be harsh in itself, is peculiarly well adapted to bear 
grafts of a more sunny and softer climate. What is lost in 
beauty and softness of sound is gained in brevity and con- 
cise strength. A more serious reproach made to our Eng- 
lish is, that its sounds are even now becoming daily dim- 
mer, and its enunciation fainter. The change of the full 
my, as still pronounced by Americans, into the shortened 
sound of the same word in England, as in the orthodox 
" me lud," is a case in point. What exquisite delight we 
derive from a truly clear and accurate enunciation, and 
how rare an accomplishment it is in our day ! We have 
heard of men who have gone home after one of the late 
Mr. Thackeray's lectures on the Georges, in which he 
quotes a poem by Bishop Heber, to read it over, and who 
have declared that, though familiar with every line, they 
had hardly known what it was until they heard it from the 
lips of the lecturer. 

It is unfortunately but too true that English is becoming 
daily less euphonious. Even since the times of Elizabeth 
many " honeyed " words of Shakespeare have been lost, and 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. 55 

this deterioration of sounds is progressing at a formidable 
rate. We must attribute the change mainly to the ten- 
dency to shorten all words by dropping even the few in- 
flections that still remain, to the unsparing introduction of 
the hissing sounds and especially the letter s, and to other 
unmusical innovations. This is all the more to be de- 
plored, as we ought to be, even in this respect, more care- 
ful in guarding words from corruption. We should not 
forget that, as Mrs. Jameson tells us well, we are obliged, 
for the purpose of circulation and intercommunication, to 
coin truth into words. It is important, therefore, to see to 
it that the coin is not adulterated, but kept pure and up 
to the original standard of signification and value, so that 
it may be inconvertible into the truth it represents. If lan- 
guage is really daguerreotyped truth, accuracy of language 
may well be considered as one of the bulwarks of truth. 
Is there not something inexpressibly shocking to English 
ears and English minds in the Italian idiom which gives to 
the guide for the sake of his glib tongue the name of the 
great orator Cicerone, which values proficiency in the fine 
arts as a virtue and calls the happy possessor a virtuoso, 
and makes him a brave man, a bravo, who murders in 
secret? The degeneracy of such words does not, how- 
ever, depend on the meaning only ; the sound is of great 
importance, and the violently curtailed slang word hussy, 
for instance, will never again rise to convey the charm and 
the dignity of its full and original form, the loving house- 
wife. 

The tendency of our English to reduce words to their 
narrowest limits, which has led to its monosyllabic charac- 
ter, is in like manner daily growing stronger. It received 
its first impulse, no doubt, already in Anglo-Saxon times, 
from the causes indicated above, but its full development 
must be ascribed to French influence. It was the Normans 
who silenced the final e in a large number of words, and 
thus reduced them from two syllables to one. " Ze$ 



56 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Anglais" said Voltaire sneeringly, " gagnent sur nous deux 
heures par jour en parlant, parcequ'ils mangent la moitie 
de leurs mots" He little knew that his own countrymen 
were the authors of this change. For in the French 
poetry of the twelfth and thirteenth century we find mute e 
already very generally substituted for the accented e of 
former years. Chaucer sounds it only in verbs, — 

" The more quainte knackes that they make 
The more wol I stele when I take," 

but in other words it is mute, — 

" Ther was here hwete and eek here malt igrounde, 
Instede of melke, yet wol I gere hem bren," &c. 

and in the popular verses of James Audeley, soon after 
1400, the final e is invariably silent. Almost the only pro- 
tection against this shortening of words is found in German 
words, where the letters g or v preceded the final vowel, 
which have preserved and even developed their second 
syllable, as, e. g. : — 

Anglo-Saxon. English. German. 

fealve, fallow, falb. 

gealga, gallows, Galgen. 

geolve, yellow, gelb. 

spearva, sparrow, Sper (ling). 

This process was subsequently extended, by the force of 
analogy, to the letters r and I preceding g or h, e. g. : — 

Anglo-Saxon. English. German. 

burh, borough, Burg, 

tealg, tallow, Talg. 

bearh, barrow, Bahre. 

baelg, bellow, Balg. 

sorh, sorrow, Sorge. 

mearg, marrow, Mark. 

The result is that the number of monosyllables in English 
surpasses by far that of any other modern language, and 
this feature gives it a peculiarly direct and straightforward 
character, equally far from the courteously studied and in- 
direct French and the lumbering, intricate German. In 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. 57 

the following lines from Macbeth there are fifty-two words, 
and of these fifty are monosyllables : — 

" That is a step 
On which I must fall down, or else o'er leap, 
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires, 
Let no light see my black and deep desires. 
The eye winks at my hand. Yet let that be 
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see." 

There is in this inattention to mere sounds and this strip- 
ping of words of all so-called superfluities a great mechan- 
ical triumph, which reveals the eminently practical sense of 
the people through the practical character of their language. 
They evidently use such forms not in order to chat and to 
amuse themselves by the mere utterance of words, but as 
means toward action. They choose, moreover, for such 
purposes, the shortest and simplest way, not only because 
it suffices, but because they prefer it. There is even some- 
thing poetical in this perfect mechanism, which thus pro- 
duces the greatest end by the smallest means. In speaking 
English the mind must ever be thoroughly active. There 
is no abundance of words here, as in other languages, — no 
fullness of forms, no minute details are given. On the con- 
trary, the slightest and most delicate modifications of sound, 
accent, and position must, unaided, convey to others the 
subtlest and gravest shades of meaning. The ear must 
not only hear, and hear most attentively, but the mind must 
be hard at work, and the heart at the same time feel, in 
order to understand. A mere hint suffices to replace all 
the inflections of Latin and Greek, and the spiritual power 
of the language is thus increased in proportion as the full- 
ness of forms is diminished. 

If we examine the letters and their sounds, individually, 
we must not overlook the fact, that the Anglo-Saxon form 
of our English lacked some of them altogether, which were 
supplied only at the time of the Conquest. Such was the 
modern k for which before that time c was used. The 



58 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Norman-French gave us the former, but the apparent gain 
was our loss, for at the same time we lost ch and h as gut- 
turals, pronounced in the manner in which they now 
form so striking a feature of German. The combinations 
sh and ch were, on the other hand, introduced with their 
French sound, for they were as unknown to Saxon as they 
are still to German ; and thus sal became shall ; cild, child ; 
and Mrh, church. Even now the Scotch use sal for shall, 
as in the quotation " Listen or ye sal rue it," introduced in 
" Guy Mannering," ch. 46. WicklirTe has in St. Luke shal 
and elsewhere schal, but even Chaucer still says, " shal pay/' 
836. That the older Saxon, often called Semi-Saxon, did 
not give the modern sound to the letters sch, would ap- 
pear from the fact that the hard sound of k is repre- 
sented by the same letters. We find, therefore, in contem- 
poraneous MSS 

chirche, schulde, chestre, riche, 

worche, thenche (think), seche (sick), liche (like). 

It was this varying and undecided mode of spelling which 
led to the changes from French soft ch into hard English 
c, as from chat to cat and chapon to capon, words that are 
even now interchanged in Normandy and Picardy. C%attle 
and cattle are, in like manner, but different forms of one 
and the same word ; and our modern word cater has hardly 
enough left to prove its derivation from the French acheter. 
Fortunately we find the gradual transformation represented 
in successive authors, for whilst Chaucer still says achater 
in his " Canterbury Tales," 570 and elsewhere, Ben Jonson 
in " The Devil an Ass," I. 3, shortens the word already to 
nearly its modern form, — 

" He is my wardrobe man, my acafer, my cook, 
Butler and steward." 

The letter g was anciently of a very peculiar nature as far 
as its sound was concerned, and this explains many strange 
anomalies in its modern pronunciation. It was certainly 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. - 59 

pronounced like our y in yes before the two vowels e and i. 
Thus the Anglo-Saxon yealew became yellow ; yyrstawdaey, 
yesterday ; yeoglere, juggler ; yeong, young ; yeoc, yoke ; 
yeta, yet ; yeolca, yolk ; yea, yea ; year, year ; with its 
strong inflected plural of yore, our own yore. The old 
yeard is now yard, though garden sounds differently now, 
whilst the Scotch insist upon pronouncing it yard, and 
Americans compromise by giving it an intermediate sound 
like yyarden. Its compound (w)ort-geard does not seem 
to have ever had a hard y, or it could not have become 
orchard, which was, curiously enough, once written hortyard, 
under the influence of a mistaken connection with the 
Latin hortus. Where the hard sound was really needed to 
preserve the true nature of the word, an u was inserted 
between y and e or i, and hence we write yuide, yuilt and 
yuise, yuelders and yuess. The same sound seems to have 
been given to g at the end of words, for there it has almost 
invariably changed into y, as from daeg to day, weeg to way, 
bcelg to belly, and from thence farther on into bellow, belch, 
bulge, budget, and bully. Here also an intervening u saves 
final g from deterioration, as in plague, league and rogue. 
When this change of g into y has taken place in the mid- 
dle of a word, it leads to a further shortening into i, and then 
the word is apt to become monosyllabic. In wagon and 
(Charles') wain, the full and the shortened form both sur- 
vive. Generally the contraction has taken place in Ger- 
man words, as in — 



glo- Saxon. 


English. 


German 


haegel, 


hail, 


Hagel. 


faeger, 


fair, 




fugol, 


fowl, 


Vogel. 


sugu, 


sow, 


Sau. 




nail, 


Nagel. 




sail, 


Segel. 




flail, 


Flegel. 




lair, 


Lager. 




maid, 


Magd. 



60 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

The tendency of changing final g into w, which is com- 
mon to all Teutonic languages, prevails largely in English, 
and thus we obtain from — 

Anglo-Saxon. English. 

daeg, day and dawn, 

drag, dray, draw, 

lag, law. 

sagan. say, saw 

maga maw. 

This change must, however, not be confounded with the 
constant interchange between the Saxon w and the French 
y, which likewise pervades the language, and gives us a 
number of valuable synonyms. Thus from the 

French, We have E?iglish i 

garde, guard and ward, 

gardien, guardian and warden, 

guise, guise and wise, 

sergent, sergeant and servant. 

In other words but one form exists ; thus guichet is 
wicket ; garenne, warren ; gdter, waste ; guerre, war ; guepe, 
wasp ; gare, (be) ware ; gages, wages ; Galles, Wales ; Guil- 
laume, William ; and Guelphs only Whelps. How little the 
difference between w and g was observed of old, we see 
from the use made of the two letters in older poems. The 
Romaunt of the Rose has " In reward (regard) of my 
daughter's shame," and the Parson's Tale, " Take reward 
(regard) of thyn owne vallewe, that thou ne be to foule to 
thy selfe." 

In the MSS. of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, 
e. g., in Layamon's " Brut," Ernleye and others, a curious g 
is found, written differently from the ordinary g, and in 
English prints often rendered by a special g somewhat 
resembling z. It is evidently meant for the soft g of the 
Anglo-Saxon in its state of transition to y or i, as in gif, 
yef, if ; gea, geo, you ; geong, gong, young. It never can 
have had any resemblance in sound to z, although it 
was, no doubt from ignorance, often so written and even 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. 61 

printed in Old English type, as when we find neighbor 
spelt neizbour in Chaucer, but it seems to survive with 
Scotchmen in the name of Mackenzie. In support of our 
theory, that it is but softened g, we may quote from the famous 
proclamation of Henry III. in 1258, ik We senden gew this 
writ open," and from a MS. in the Bodleyan Collection, 78, 
fol. 48, written by an author of the fourteenth century, who 
uses the peculiar form of g in all the following words : — 

u In Englis tonge y schal gow telle, 
Gif ge so long with me wyl dwelle, 
Ne Latin will y speke, ne waste 
Bot Englis that men uses maste, 
For that ys gowre kynde langage 
That ge hafe here most of usage." 

The Anglo-Saxon combination of eg became in Old Eng- 
lish gg, but changed its sound entirely, under French in- 
fluence, into the modern pronunciation of dg, which it is 
not known to have had before the fifteenth century. 

Anglo-Saxon. Old English, Modern. 

ecg, egg, edge. 

mycg, niygg, midge, 

secg, segg, sedge. 

In some words the sound of soft ch was merely inserted 
in order to preserve the soft sound of g which it had in 
French, without lengthening the preceding vowel. Thus 
the French juge became our judge, and hence also our 
badge, ridge, hedge, and wedge. 

Another letter, the sound of which presents some pecu- 
liarities in English in common with g, is h Both were pro- 
nounced in Anglo-Saxon as they now are in German. 
That h was not silent, even as late as the fourteenth cen- 
tury, we can see from the quaint poem of " Pier's Plough- 
man," in which it must be sounded in order to produce the 
proper alliteration, e. g. : — 

" Thanne &am ther a &yng, 
iTnyghthood hym hadde," 

and 

" Yet I courbed my Jcnee 
And cried." 



62 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

"Letters," says Seneca (Epistle 114), "like soldiers, are 
apt to desert and drop off in a long march," and thus both 
these letters were silenced, mainly by French influence 
again, whenever they were initial and followed by n. The 
nasal sound of gn was, in the eleventh and twelfth century, 
already so rarely written, that we find in MS. of that 
period, alternately montaigne and mountain, cocaygne and 
cocayne, soveraygne and soverayne, Alemaigne and Alemaine, 
Spagne and Spayne. Whilst k and g became silent be- 
fore the letter n, and thus gave us our knight, /mife, know, 
knave, rei^n, dei<m, ^norne, nostic, and phlegm, they were, 
by the same influence, at the end of words, changed into 
the true French sound of ch. Hence our hirch, church, 
starcA, hench, much, v\ch, bleach. The Scotch alone re- 
tained the original hard sound, and still uses ilka for each, 
sick for such, whilk for which, kist for chest, and kern for 
churn. Its conservative tendencies are not wholly to be 
ascribed to the character of the people, but largely also to 
the fact that Scotland was so much farther removed from 
the direct influence of Norman-French, and, when the 
latter threatened to change it, had still preserved much of 
its ancient Gaelic. Thus we find here also, alone in Great 
Britain, the original aspirate sound of ch, which was com- 
mon to the Anglo-Saxon and to the Celtic of Scotland, and 
thus survived in its Loch, which the French could not pro- 
nounce. 

Another letter which has lost its sound in many combi- 
nations, under the influence of French masters, is I ; and 
what is most remarkable in this connection is, that our 
English has preserved it in many French words that have 
lost it in France. They were, it is true, generally imported 
from the Continent at a time when they still had a sound 
at home ; but why we should have been more conservative 
than our neighbors is not quite so clearly perceived. Thus 
we have fault, false, veal, chisel, salmon, scaffold, pencil, 
vessel, culpable, vault, and fool, for the French faute, faux, 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. 63 

veau, ciseaux, sawnon, echafaud, pi?iceau, vaisseau, coupable, 
voute, and fou. The explanation is found in the fact that 
the Romance languages have all, more or less, the same 
tendency to drop the sound of I after a and 0, or other in- 
distinctly pronounced vowels. This is not the case in 
English, and hence the preservation. Here, on the other 
hand, I is apt to become silent before k, m, f, even where it 
is still written, which is the reason why we do not hear it 
in taZk, cha/k, fo/k, yo/k, haZf, caff, pa/m, baZm, and qua/m. 
It is only by the force of analogy that it has become silent 
in the words should, wou/d, and couZd. The Scotch here 
carry the matter farther than the English, for they pro- 
nounce gold as gowd, full as fu\ call as cmv, fall as faw. 
The liquid I of the French — their I brouille — was lost in 
English apparently as early as the eleventh century, for we 
find there already William for Guillaume, travailer for trav- 
ailleur, doel for denil, perilous and marvellous. 

The most remarkable of all old English letters, however, 
were the two signs which anciently represented th, of which 
one was used at the end or in the middle of a word and 
had a softer sound, whilst the other occurred only at the 
beginning and had a harsh, sharp sound. In modern 
English the two are used just the reverse ; all pronouns 
beginning with th and their derivatives have a soft tk, and 
the sharp sound is now almost exclusively found at the end, 
except in a few words like thin and thick, in beneath, 
smooth, with, and in verbs terminating in the. The reason 
of this strange confusion must be sought in the heathenish 
origin of the two letters. They existed already in the 
ancient Runic writing, and had been preserved even after 
St Augustine had introduced, with Christianity, the Roman 
alphabet, because the latter had no equivalent for them. 
But as they belonged to a different era and a different 
faith, their precise force and meaning were soon lost, and 
hence, probably, the tendency to mistake one for another. 
They were, moreover, in their ancient form, unfortunately 



64 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

so much like the letter y, that to this resemblance we must 
ascribe the perplexing custom of older manuscripts, to 
write continually y for the. Even printers, as late as the 
fourteenth and fifteenth century, continued the abuse, 
partly perhaps from the ignorance of transcribers, but 
partly also from pedantry, and Tyndale's Bible always has 
ye and yt for the and that, yereof and y T oi for thereof. 

Whatever changes, however, these and other letters may 
have undergone in sound and form, enough is left of the 
ancient letters to bear witness to the remarkable conserva- 
tism of the English people. They have ever disliked rev- 
olutions, and prefer avoiding them even in the realm of 
letters; they have ever abhorred violent measures and a 
too ready abandonment of what is old and venerable. As 
in English law, therefore, a strange adherence to old usages 
and otherwise antiquated forms goes along with practical 
eminence, so in language also there is a remarkable con- 
trast between antique orthography and modern pronuncia- 
tion. This apparent inconsistency is but another proof of 
the great reluctance to change and thus to efface the traces 
of the past. It must not be overlooked, however, that in 
language such changes are next to impossible ; they can be 
brought about only by inner necessity ; external agencies 
are nearly powerless. Even the power of the Caesars could 
not accomplish an innovation apparently so trifling as the 
introduction of a letter, for when Claudius desired to add 
an X to the Roman alphabet, he found all his power in 
vain, and Priscian tells us, in his great work on the Letters : 
" Nulli ausi sunt antiquam scripturam mutare." 
' We Americans, on the contrary, love change, have no 
reverence for what is old merely because it is old, and 
reject indignantly the doctrine of the necessity of a " his- 
toric basis," for we live far more in the future than in the 
present, and have no past. With us alone, therefore, could 
radical changes of orthography ever obtain largely. Re- 
spectable and influential publishers, supported by an im- 



ENGLISH SOUNDS. 65 

mense capital and a large stock of energy and perse- 
verance, could by means of popular dictionaries affect the 
spelling of a nation, and induce even great authors, like 
Washington Irving, to appear in their new and arbitrarily^^ 
imposed orthography. Their influence, however, can afteiv 
all be only temporary, as long as North America depends 
exclusively on the mother country for its models of litera- 
ture. Even on broader ground, we believe that these 
attempts to change, by arbitrary decision, the manner of 
writing a great national tongue, must necessarily fail for 
two reasons. They are neither practicable nor desirable. 
No combination of men, however powerful in themselves, 
can permanently control a living organism, such as a lan- 
guage is, with its steady growth and self-wrought changes. 
To make a change really useful, moreover, it would have to 
be radical, and then we are reduced at once to phonogra- 
phy. It may look, at first sight, as if a large portion of 
certain words, like the French viennent or aoat, the German 
sieht or the English though and pshaw, could easily be 
spared. But then we would at once lose the historic basis, 
which is in Etymology as important as in the other sciences. 
The letters in words of modern languages may not all be 
pronounced now, but that is not their only purpose. They 
give an essentially correct image of the pronunciation of 
words as it was when the latter were first used. The 
written word has remained, the spoken word has changed 
continually. If the form were to follow the sound, there 
would soon not a single trace be left of the language used 
by our forefathers. This is the principal and all-powerful 
argument against phonography, and the reason why the 
French moralist called good spelling an infallible sign of 
good breeding, u for," said he, " spelling is the rationale of 
the written word, and only well-educated and refined peo- 
ple know that." 

We should be extremely sorry to see the words of Vol- 
taire, which he intended as a bitter sarcasm, now verified 



66 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

in English : " Uetymologie est une science ou les voyelles ne 
font rien et les consonnes fort peu de chose" For lan- 
guages change already rapidly enough, so that even our 
English has many words of the same origin which, in their 
present form, have not a single letter in common, and 
differ in meaning as far as in spelling. It requires all the 
resources of Comparative Etymology, and a thorough 
familiarity with the great laws according to which letters 
change in languages of a certain family, to detect the same 
roots under such varied forms. We may well ask, what 
would have become of English Etymology if the " Fonetic 
Nuz " had been started a thousand years ago ? It is safe 
to assert that nobody would have had either the courage 
or the time to attempt mastering the history of our lan- 
guage. 






CHAPTER VI. 

ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT. 

" Accent is the very essence of words, which without that would be but so many 
collections of syllables." — Sheridan. 

Before a strict judge our English would probably not 
be allowed to cavil at any attempts to improve its orthog- 
raphy, as long as it adheres so tenaciously to its almost 
vicious mode of spelling. It must be admitted, that in 
this respect we are yet in that happy age, of which Burns 
says : — 

" In days when mankind were but callans 
At grammar, logic and sic talents, 
They took nae pains their speech to balance 

Or rules to gie, 
But spak their thoughts in plain, braid lallans 
Like you or me." 

Our orthography is the most anomalous on the face of the 
earth, and English makes of all languages the wildest and 
most extravagant use of letters in its written form. Never- 
theless these very outrages upon principle and good taste 
have become so dear, so familiar, we might almost say so 
sacred to the mass of English speaking people, that the 
strongest objection to any reform in spelling is found in 
the grotesque effect, which any innovation produces. This 
impression has, as yet, proved too strong to be overcome. 
Thus we have to bear the evil as well as we may, and con- 
sole ourselves with the undeniable fact, that the mere learn- 
ing to spell is to the child a training as severe and as useful 
as any more generally respected branch of knowledge 
taught in common schools. For " to spell English," says 



68 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Mr. Ellis, "is the most difficult of human attainments," 
and this difficulty is probably the most serious if not the 
only impediment in the way of its ever becoming the lan- 
guage of the earth. Were it not obscured by its whim- 
sically antiquated orthography, which disguises its words 
and requires long years to learn, it would certainly be the 
best fitted for universal adoption. From the highest to the 
lowest, all of us have at some time or other become familiar 
with the painful uncertainty of some word. Ingenuity has 
succeeded in devising the combination, "kaughy," which 
sounds like a familiar word and yet contains not a single 
letter of its proper form. Simple ignorance encouraged 
the indignant housemaid, whose letters were produced in 
court and excited great merriment, to repel an attack upon 
her way of spelling the odd looking word " yf," with the 
words : " What should wy eff spell, but wife ? " 

The fault is an ancient one, and the sin has been handed 
down from our first fathers. The Anglo-Saxons wrote 
badly, the Norman-French wrote worse. The former, we 
ought to state in their behalf, had neither grammar nor 
criticism. Nor were they specially to be blamed for it, for 
it was no better with the oldest of all languages. Ancient 
Hebrew had to wait for the Rabbi Judah Ching to write its 
first grammar at Fez in Africa, in 1070. The Greeks knew 
no grammar at all prior to the Alexandrian age, because 
they ignored all other languages, and grammar cannot exist 
without comparison. Even the Romans were, if we may 
believe Suetonius, unacquainted with grammar until Crates 
Mellotes, the ambassador of king Attalus, brought one to 
Rome between the second and third Punic war. How 
then could our poor ignorant Saxons have one of their 
own? That much ignorance and much caprice prevailed 
among their writers, is true, but this also was more of a 
misfortune than a crime. They lived so far apart from each 
other, that they could not " compare notes." They were 
all monks, whose lives were passed in the quiet seclusion 



ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT. 69 

of their cells, without intercommunication or exchange of 
thoughts with others. Was not the venerable Bede, their 
greatest Church historian, an inmate of the same convent, 
from the seventh year of his life to the last, his sixty-second, 
without ever having left its holy precincts ? We need not 
wonder then, that each one of these pious men had his own 
fancies and preferences for this or that mode of spelling, 
to which he adhered in all innocence and with perfect 
independence, and that thus no two versions of the same 
work are ever found to agree. These writers were, more- 
over, not less distant from each other in time than in place. 
They wrote at great intervals, and in the mean while 
the language, never quite settled, much less uniform, had 
changed much and often very seriously. How it must have 
fared under such circumstances with a barbarous language, 
still in process of formation, we may judge from the fate 
of a well-formed idiom in times of peaceful development. 
We are told by Pegge, that when Yaugelas in 1659, pub- 
lished his translation of Quintus Curtius, which had occu- 
pied him for more than thirty years, he found that French 
had changed so much in the mean time, that he was obliged 
to correct the former part of his work in order to bring it 
up to the standard of the latter part. This caused the wit 
Voiture to apply to it the epigram of Martial on a barber, 
who was so slow in his operations, that the hair began to 
grow on one side of his face, before he had fully trimmed 
the other side : — 

" Entrepelus tonsor dum circuit ora Luperci 
Expungitque geuas, altera barba subit." — VII. 83. 

Anglo-Saxon writers belonged, moreover, to different 
races, each of which had its own dialect. England was 
not yet one great kingdom, and it did not yet possess a 
national tongue. Each learned monk naturally preferred 
his own native idiom, even if he possessed the rare accom- 
plishment of knowing another, and thus new forms and 
new spellings were continually introduced. Besides, when 



70 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Christianity was first introduced, the difficulties it met with 
had been largely increased by the fact that its early mes- 
sengers were foreigners, utterly ignorant of the language 
of the people to whom they were sent, and disposed to 
abuse their power and legitimate authority in point of lan- 
guage to the utmost. The priests, also, in later years, were 
not the most learned, and we may be induced to judge 
them less harshly, by remembering that even in the days 
of Queen Elizabeth, as Fuller tells us, " the clergy were 
ordered to con over their lessons by themselves once or 
twice before service, in order that they might be able to 
read them fluently to the congregation ! " 

The influence of the Danish occupation on the orthog- 
raphy of English was grievous in the extreme. It did 
not change the words themselves, because Danish and 
Saxon were kindred, if not the same languages. For many 
of the Danes were no doubt Germans, who, rather than sub- 
mit Jo the iron rule of Charlemagne, had taken refuge in 
Denmark. This very resemblance of the two languages, 
however, led to an almost boundless confusion between 
kindred words, which resulted finally in the breaking down 
of almost all inflections, and in a serious change of the 
pronunciation. This resemblance, so often denied, is still 
susceptible of easy proof. Already in that remarkable mon- 
ument of distant Iceland, Snorre's "Edda," pages 275, 276, 
it is expressly stated of Englishmen and Icelanders, " ver 
erum einnar tungu" — we are of one tongue, — and when 
Christianity was to be introduced among the followers of 
Odin in Sweden, Anglo-Saxon priests were sent from Eng- 
land to preach the Gospel, and found themselves, untaught, 
sufficiently familiar with Swedish for the purpose. A mix- 
ture of languages, so closely related and so similar to each 
other, is always accompanied by fatal results, and in this 
instance certainly did not fail to produce them at once. 
They showed themselves mainly in a largely increased 
irregularity of spelling, which is felt, if not always seen, to 



ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT. 71 

this day. The evil was still further aggravated by the 
fact, that both Danes and Anglo-Saxons were accustomed 
to great license in their earliest mode of writing, — the 
Runes, — for we find that, e. g., the word eftir was found by 
the poet F. G. Bergman to have been spelt on runic stones 
in twenty-eight different ways, and even in monuments of 
the thirteenth and fourteenth century the same word still 
appears in seventeen varied forms. 

■ In Anglo-Saxon we may safely say that the vowels were 
all interchanged one with another ; and this freedom ac- 
counts mainly for the dimmed and obscure character of 
modern English vowels and their strange, ever varying 
pronunciation. The consonants were somewhat more faith- 
fully preserved, but they also seem to have frequently 
interchanged, at least within the limits of their particular 
class. The transition becomes more evident if we com- 
pare the forms which the same word assumes in different 
languages. Thus in labials we find 

Latin, nepos ; English, nephew; French, neveu; German, Nejfe; 

polo; will; Greek, @ov\ofj.ai; icollen; 

Anglo-Saxon, cna;m; knave; KnaJe; 

to which we may add as a familiar illustration, the oft-quoted 
inability to distinguish between the French words boeuf 
and veuve, ascribed to the Basques, of whom already Scali- 
ger said sneeringly, — 

" Hand temere antiquas mutat Yasconia voces 
Cui nihil est aliud Vivere quam Bibere." 

Thus, also, with sibilants, e. g. — 

Latin* French. English. 

placeo, plaisir, pleasure, 

licere, loisir, leisure, 

securus, sur, sine. 

With such a tendency to vary all letters, it is no longer 
a matter of astonishment, that English should exhibit more 
remarkable cases of mis-spelling than any other language. 
" Take a dozen MSS. of the ' Romaunt of the Rose/" says 



72 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Pasquier in his learned " Recherches de la France," VIII. 
c. 3, " and you will find there as many different forms of 
old words as they were taken from different fountains." 
On the famous tapestry of Bayeux, which contains about 
the amount of a page of writing, six different ways of spell- 
ing the name of the Conqueror occur. They are : Wilielmi, 
Willelmi, Wilgelmum, Willielmus, Willem, Wilel. Of the 
great name of Shakespeare, Halliwell tells us, that there 
are not less than thirty-four ways in which the various 
members of the family wrote it ; and in the Council-book 
of the Corporation of Stratford, where it is introduced one 
hundred and sixty-six times during the years that the poet's 
father was a member of the municipal body, there are four- 
teen different varieties. The modern " Shakespeare " is 
not among them. Well might already Chaucer say, there- 
fore, in the last stanzas of his Troilus and Cressida, — 

" And for there is so greate diversite 
In Englyshe and in writynge of our tonge, 
So pray I to God that none miswrite the." 

Fuller mentions the name of Villers, spelt in fourteen dif- 
ferent ways in the deeds of that illustrious family ; these 
names seem to have been written down as they were seized 
by the ear ; hence, for instance, Rawlie so often for Raleigh. 
Neither the Duke of Marlborough, nor his terrible Sarah, 
nor Queen Anne herself, could spell ; but the worst of 
these short-comings is probably the young Pretender's 
blunder, who wrote his father's name " Gems," instead of 
James ! 

Matters improved but little even after the introduction 
of printing, since the first printers, and, in fact, almost all 
of them, down to the year 1531, were Dutchmen, who could 
neither speak nor write English. We find in Strype's " Me- 
moirs of Cranmer," p. 60, that Grafton sustained his peti- 
tion, in which he asked for a privilege of three years for 
his Bible, with the argument, that " for covetousness' sake 
these foreign printers would not employ learned English- 



ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT. 73 

men to oversee and correct their work," and yet they meant 
to pirate his work ! 

It must, unfortunately, he admitted, that even now our 
English has, as yet, no historical orthography, and that a 
universally acknowledged authority in matters of spelling 
and pronunciation, such as the French Academy claims to 
be, is still to be desired. As it is, the matter is left almost 
entirely in the hands of the popular writers of England, 
and great credit is due to their good sense and the innate 
conservatism of the nation, which have so far protected 
the language against hurtful neglect or violent innovations. 
The difficulty, however, is insuperable as long as we have 
forty-two distinct sounds in our language, and our defective 
alphabet provides us only with twenty-three letters. The 
sounds we obtained from the various sources which have 
contributed to form modern English ; the signs we derive 
directly from classical sources only, without all the help 
that these sources might give us. 

With all this, it must not be imagined that this question 
of spelling words in one way or in another is altogether 
indifferent. It may not be considered absolutely necessary 
for a language to indicate in every word its origin by its 
form, but in an idiom, consisting of such a number of 
heterogeneous elements as the English, it is, as we have 
already seen, an important object to show whence they 
come, and this, in many instances, helps the clearness and 
the force of their meaning. We do not like to lose the 
suggestion of ph pointing to a Greek origin of some words, 
or that of an inserted b in words like debt and doubt, which 
recalls to us their Latin origin. 

Even more useful is that variety of spelling which indi- 
cates two different meanings of one and the same word, 
that may have come to us at two distinct epochs of our 
history, or in connection with two separate purposes. Thus 
we distinguish between canon and cannon, cord and chord, 
dram and drachm, draft and draught, holy and wholly, steak 



74 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

and stake, though all these double forms come from one 
root, — or between bays and baize, sun and son, mote and 
moat, mite and might, sent and scent, vail and vale, which 
come from different roots. To abandon the twofold spell- 
ing for the sake of greater simplicity, would involve more 
or less loss of distinctness of meaning, and the sense would 
be very apt to suffer by the dimness of the form. 

Besides the formal letters that constitute a word, and 
the conventional sound which we attribute to them, there 
is, however, a third element to be considered in all words, 
and one of hardly less importance and interest than the 
others. This is the Accent. It plays the same essential 
part in all languages, and exhibits its higher, spiritual 
nature by its very diversity. Almost everywhere we find it 
to have gradually changed from its earliest nature as a 
merely sensual accent, dependent on the tangible length 
of letters and sounds, to a second nature as a conventional, 
logical accent, determined by the mental power of the word. 
Thus, in Ancient Languages, quantity decided, in Modern 
Languages, quality ; in the former the accent was uniform, 
because it was fixed by laws based upon tangible objects ; 
in the latter it is varying, because it corresponds here with 
the different ways of thinking belonging to each people. 
Latin and Greek prosody were alike, but the name of Napo- 
leon, familiar to all Europe, changes thus in our day : Poles 
and Bohemians, who always accent the penultima, without 
regard to length or position, say Napoleon ; the French, 
N&poleon ; the Germans, Swedes, and English, Napdleon ; 
and the Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese, Napoledne. 
We can now hardly understand the vast importance given 
to mere quantity in Latin ; and the great and lasting effect 
which Cicero states to have been produced upon his audi- 
ence by certain metres he employed at the close of an ora- 
tion, is almost incomprehensible to modern assemblies. 
For, with us, tone alone decides, and in the composition 
of poetry it commonly suffices to make a syllable long if 



ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT. 75 

it but be accented, and short, if it be unaccented. In fact, 
the accent is in English as in Greek, entirely distinct from 
the quantity. Thus we can take the word august, with 
its two unmistakably long syllables, and accent either 
syllable, speaking of an august presence, or the month of 
August, without influencing the quantity of the vowel. Such 
at least, has been the established usage in English since 
the days of Latin church-hymns and the political songs of 
later centuries. For it was not always so. In Anglo-Saxon 
certainly prosody played a very important part, as we may 
readily see from a comparison of the words in a poem with 
its regular rhythm and classical metres. We learn then, 
that the same syllables were at one time long and at another 
time short, changing, however, their meaning with their 
quantity. Thus, is, with a long i, represented our modern 
ice ; with a short i our is ; god was either God or good; ac 
was oak or the obsolete form for and; hyrde was herd or 
heard ; and at was ate or at 

Although, however, this distinction was clear to the ear 
and so important to the meaning, it was utterly neglected 
by transcribers, and is now most difficult to ascertain. 
Prosody, we may well say, is altogether lost in English. 
This is mainly owing to the influence of the Norman Con- 
quest, and it took place during the time of the change 
from Anglo-Saxon through French into English. The 
difficulty arose from the fact that, as each language has 
its favorite letters and sounds, so it has also its decidedly 
marked and prevailing accent. Now the French accents 
by preference the last syllable, the English, on the contrary, 
the first. Hence the struggle, for when our English was 
formed the French words lost first their original accent, 
and then, with it, frequently their spelling, because those 
vowels which were now left unaccented, became short, and 
others which were accented, gained in length. It was thus 
that partie became party ; ambassadeur, embassador; cheva- 
lerze, chivalry; gouvernement, government ; and necessai're, 
necessary. 



76 STUDIES IN" ENGLISH. 

This process was of course not the work of one or two 
generations; it continued during several hundred years, 
and we can trace the gradual change, in almost unbroken 
succession, from poet to poet. At first, we find naturally 
the French accent all powerful, and it remained so even 
as late as the times of Edward I. when poets still said : 
tresoun, baroun, batoun, mirour, mayeur, somnour, conseit, 
battdille and beaute. In the Romance of Athelstone, which 
dates from the middle of the fourteenth century, the accent 
is still on the last syllable, as in French : — 

" An weten alle be comoiin as£nt, 

In the pleyne parlement." 
" Both his castelles and his toures." 

Reliquioe Antiquce, 85. 

Chaucer presents us here, as in all great questions of 
language, the turning-point in the history of this change. 
He hesitates, because in reality the language itself thus 
hesitated to abandon the French accent and to give to 
foreign words its own Saxon tone. Thus we find in the 
Canterbury Tales, " The Emperoiires daughter," " So prick- 
eth him Nature in his corages," and " Of which Vertue en- 
gendred is the flour," " Then say they therein swich difficul- 
ties " And forth I led hire sayle in this manere." In other 
portions again we find the modern English accent already 
encroaching upon French words, as in the lines — 

" And sicherly she was of grete disport, 
And ful pleasant and amiable of port, 
And peined hire to contref^ten chere 
Of court and ben estatelich of manure, 
And to ben holden digne of reverence." 

Whilst the metre makes it clear that at one time we are 
required to read service, solempne, langdge, mariage, pen- 
ance, vitaille, scolere, honour, curat, and village, we find in 
other places the necessity of saying tresour, 7945, colour 
5068, viage, 4732, and conseil, 4746. At times he seems 
actually to affect the French accent for some purpose un- 



ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT. 77 

known to us, and then he is apt to make two syllables out 
of one, for the occasion, contrary to the general tendency 
of our idiom, e. g., — 

" A clerke there was of Oxenforde also, 
That unto Logicke hadde long ygo, 
And lene was his horse as is a rake, 
And he was not right fat, I undertake." 

Canterbury Tales, 

This abuse of words, which have not of course maintained 
their lengthened form, can hardly arise from neglect, as has 
sometimes been claimed, because in that case contemporaries 
would hardly have praised his verses so much for their reg- 
ularity and beauty of sound. 

For some time after him the French accent probably 
maintained its supremacy, but ultimately almost all im- 
ported words adopted the English accent entirely, and 
they have ever since retained it unchanged. This change 
shows more clearly than any other modification in form or 
sound, because in a more spiritual manner, that the pre- 
dominant genius of our language, in its music as well as 
in its grammar, was English still. 

Spenser still says forest, furious, hideous, dalliaunce, mer- 
riment, and in his " Fairy Queen," VII. 7, we must read : — 

"Ina fayre plain upon an equall hill 
She placed was in a pavillion, 
Not such as craftsmen by their idle skill 
Are wont for princes states to fashion, 
But the earth herself of her owne motion," &c. 

In thus tracing the gradual rise and final triumph of the 
German accent in our English, we must not overlook the fact, 
that it probably prevailed among the mass of the people, 
who were so largely Saxon, long before authors, who wrote 
for the great, and consequently mainly for the French, dared 
adopt it in their writings. John Skelton occasionally uses 
the foreign form, perhaps principally for the sake of the me- 
tre, as when he says querele, counsele, mercy, and pleasure ; 



78 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

but on the whole we must admit that he, as well as Thomas 
"Wyatt and the Earl of Surry, shows but few deviations 
from the modern accent. The latter especially, so impor- 
tant in this aspect on account of the far-famed regularity 
and beauty of his verse, has almost invariably the German 
accent on French words, even where it appears to us 
objectionable, as in commendable and irrefragable. Other 
authors were, of course, not always as strict in observing, 
or as correct in determining, the proper accent. It is amus- 
ing to see some authors of those days writing not by the 
eye, but apparently by the ear only ; they let us thus, un- 
consciously, into the secret of the true pronunciation of 
words in their days. Audeley, a good poet, but not a very 
learned man, of the beginning of the fifteenth century, thus 
writes naively, correxeon, cruel, treusone, personache and 
hnowlache. 

Amid this mass of words, carried along by the general 
current of the language, and representing the struggle be- 
tween the French accent, which loves the end of words, aud 
the English accent, which always seeks the beginning of 
words, we meet with numerous and instructive instances of 
the manner in which the accent will show the date of in- 
troduction of new words. Thus in 1684 coffee and tea had 
evidently not yet become familiar, for Locke writes them 
caffe and the. Hence it is a sign of recent existence in 
English, when Chaucer writes nature, Milton prostrate, Syl- 
vester theatre, Cowley academy, Dryden essay, and Pope 
barrier and effort. This is not poetic license, as some 
have maintained, but simply an evidence that these and 
similar words were still French, and bore the French 
accent. 

A somewhat analogous change of accent is even now 
going on in the transition of certain words from the Northern 
States of the Union to the Southern States. While the 
former adhere strictly to the tendency of the English accent 
toward the root and the beginning of words, the South not 



ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ENGLISH ACCENT. 79 

unfrequently carries it forward, as in the name of one of 
the States, which is thus sometimes called Arkansas (not 
from any supposed Indian analogy), and at other times 
Arkansas. 

Modern French words retain, of course, their own ac- 
cent, as well as their own spelling, as long as they are not 
fully naturalized. We have not yet entirely Anglicised, 
although we cannot very well do without words like protege, 
prestige, menage, passee, ennui, outre, billet doux, amour, and 
connoisseur. But we notice also that as soon as the sound 
is changed and made to agree with our English mode of 
pronunciation, the accent follows as a matter of course, and 
we say bureau] packet, office, &c. Occasionally, it is true, 
the conflict has not yet been decided ; for although our 
English has always achieved the naturalization of foreign 
words, and thus preserved its national integrity by insisting 
upon its own accentuation, as well as its own pronunciation, 
the process is necessarily not one of violent suddenness, 
and requires some time. Good authorities still hesitate be- 
tween retinue and retinue, revenue and revenue, advertise- 
ment and advertisement, committee and committee. This 
applies not to French only, but to all foreign words. When 
we treat the lovely flower of the anemone as a Greek word, 
referring to Bion's account of the change of Adonis, 

" Atjixa po8bv t£kt*Z, raSe Sdicpva ttjv , Avejuuo^'o»>,' , 

we call it anemone, but as soon as we speak of it as a true 
English flower, it changes into " our own anemone.^ Some 
French words have been twice or oftener incorporated into 
English at different periods, and few facts in connection 
with the history of our language are more instructive than 
the clear and precise manner in which the latter ever 
reflects the features of historical changes. Such double 
forms of the same word, differing only in accent, show at 
the same time the importance of what at first sight would 
appear a very trifling, and often hardly perceptible, varia- 
tion, and that in these cases it is the accent alone which 



80 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

alters the whole nature and meaning of hundreds of our 
words. Thus it is with antic and antique, human and hu- 
mane, essay and assay, custom and costume, urban and urbane, 
gentle and genteel, property and propriety, desert and desert, 
incense and incense, gallant and gallant, august and august. 

Where there is a slight change of orthography connected 
with a change of accent, as in some of these examples, it is 
an evidence of the effect which the latter seldom fails to ex- 
ercise on the form of the word. The accented syllable must 
needs be dwelt upon longer by the voice than the others, 
and hence will soon be represented in writing also as a long 
one. Hence we find that e. g., the French conseil, montagne, 
and fontaine have lengthened their accented first syllable, 
and have thus become council [by the side of consul] moun- 
tain, and fountain ; whilst in costume and genteel it was the 
last syllable that underwent such a change, leaving again 
custom and gentle (with Gentile) by their side. Hence, also, 
crevasse, w r hich still continues in use in the States adjoining 
the lower Mississippi, has become, by the effect of an al- 
tered accent, crevice ; orison, which was long pronounced 
with a long *", is now r more commonly orison, and bourgeois 
has shortened into burgess. In words like gouvernement, 
jugement, and capitaine, the transfer of the accent has led 
to the loss of a syllable, for they are now only government 
(with a tendency to throw even the middle n out), judgment 
and captain. Others have their full form in writing yet, but 
are gradually losing a part of their substance in pronun- 
ciation, as in medicine, where the first % is generally silent. 

Some accents are of quite modern origin, and not unfre- 
quently even whimsical. The word disciple presents an 
almost unique example of advancing the accent, in direct 
violation of the general tendency of the language. It was 
anciently pronounced disciple, and with such emphasis as 
to be often written disple. The word balcony has only so 
recently changed from its former accentuation as balcony, 
that the poet Rogers complained of it bitterly, saying, 
" Contemplate is bad enough, balcony makes me sick." 



CHAPTER VH. 

NAMES OF PLACES. 
" Verba sunt rerum notae." — Cic. Top. 8. 

Names are the records of things, and especially so when 
we examine the names of places, and read in them their 
own history. It is but too little known, or at least too 
rarely thought of, that names are in no language words 
arbitrarily chosen, much less the product of chance, but 
that they have all a meaning and a history. That we can- 
not always decipher the former and retrace the latter, 
ought to be but an incentive to search more carefully for 
those facts which are within our reach. The difficulty itself 
was acknowledged by a great master of antiquity, for Plato 
says already in his Cratylus, " O, Hermogenes, son of Hip- 
ponicus, there is an old proverb, that beautiful things are 
somehow difficult to learn. Now the learning relating to 
names happens to be no small affair/' So it is in our Eng- 
lish, but great is also the reward. Nowhere are we made 
more clearly to see and more fully to feel that words are 
the most vital and most imperishable of man's creations, 
than in the historical names of places. We find here 
above all that, " as words are mysterious in their origin, so 
have they something of an awful force and intensity of life, 
which gives them a perpetuity beyond the decay of races, 
and the revolutions of empires." To trace local names, it 
is true, has, on account of its great difficulty, led to much 
absurd guesswork, and confirmed the oft-repeated accusa- 
tion, that etymology was but the " scientia ad libitum" We 
ought not to forget, however, that as astronomy arose from 
6 



82 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

astrology, and chemistry from alchemy, so, generally, " truth 
cometh out of error." Besides, guesses in themselves are 
interesting, and in the majority of cases the only means 
of sifting out of much chaff the precious grain of truth. 
Inquiries into the meaning of the names of places form 
tributary streams of history, as that excellent journal, 
"Notes and Queries," has now for many a year proved 
most successfully. They serve to point out and to estab- 
lish the changes of races who have inhabited the land ; 
they remind us of extinct customs and superstitions ; they 
augment our interest in our own and foreign countries by 
revealing the deep impress of our common humanity, even 
on what at first appears a set of purposeless sounds. Is 
there not a peculiar charm and a deep-felt interest in the 
fact that the name of Great Britain should be at the same 
time the oldest, lost in the remoteness of antiquity, and the 
most modern, by which the greatest kingdom of the earth 
is known to mankind ? Does it not at once bring before 
the mind, and very forcibly, the singular union in England 
of the most ancient traditions with the most vigorous mani- 
festations of modern life and civilization ? Thus it is more 
or less with all local names, but especially so with English 
names, for nowhere can the fusion of races, by which the 
existing population of a country has been formed, be so 
clearly traced through the names of persons and places as 
in England. The more closely we investigate them, the 
more accurately do we learn to assign to each race its due 
share in the fusion, and as this connection with the races 
of our forefathers is by far the most interesting feature in 
their history, we propose to give a brief account of the 
various sources from which they were derived. 

If we were to believe the first schoolmaster in England, 
who certainly was " most strangely abroad," — Eugene 
Aram, — we would have to look upon Celtic as the com- 
mon parent of all languages, and especially as the one 
great source from which English is derived ; for so he tells 



NAMES OF PLACES. 83 

us in the manuscript of a Dictionary on the Principle of 
Comparative Philology, which he has left behind him. 
Modern science does not support his theory, but the large 
number of local names in England derived from the Celtic 
and still retaining their ancient form, might well have 
misled even a better scholar. We now know that some 
few words of daily use, some names of rivers and hills, 
many a surname of high and low, form the tiny rill, the 
bright, silvery thread of Celtic speech, that runs through 
our modern English. These words are generally of no 
great importance in the language ; the names belong 
largely to small and obscure places, but still they are ex- 
tremely interesting in their relation to history and in 
themselves, because of the difference between their an- 
cient form and the national language now spoken in the 
same localities. 

There is, moreover, a peculiarly melancholy interest con- 
nected with them, which arises from the fact that our 
Celtic fathers have left here and there a ruined temple and 
a few popular superstitions behind them, sad relics of their 
pagan worship, but scarcely any clear and decided trace 
of their influence on the language or the institutions of 
England. It has been asserted by high authority that the 
Arabic words which are found in English are of more 
direct influence on the higher interests of man than all the 
Celtic words we have. And yet, no idiom shows more 
clearly than the Celtic the marvellous vitality of languages^ 
how tenaciously they adhere to the soil, how they die only 
with the extinction of their race, and often survive it for 
ages. The Celtic had from of old apparently less vitality, 
less power of resistance, than any other language of 
Europe. Tn its whole known history, in England and on 
the Continent, it has never made a conquest ; for the 
trifling inroad it is said to have made from Wales into the 
adjoining counties can hardly be counted as such. Ever 
feeble, ever waning, it has yet, to this day, never been 



84 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

entirely extinguished, and still survives, to a certain extent, 
in France and in England. A great many names still 
linger in these countries, which have evidently taken deep 
root in the soil and remain there long after the race that 
first bestowed them has given way to another and more 
vigorous stock. Ancient British names are still traceable 
in many towns and villages, and great natural landmarks, 
such as rivers and mountains, have retained until now 
their first names, surviving themselves in perpetual youth, 
unchanged amid the shock of revolutions and the press of 
invasions. Trod under foot by the stranger, they have, by 
some mysterious power, imposed upon the conqueror their 
own language untranslated and often unchanged, so that 
many names are found now in use, under Queen Victoria, 
which were already known and in use under Queen Boa- 
dicea. The only exception, perhaps, where the Anglo- 
Saxons gave entirely new names, even to great natural 
objects, are the mountains now called Saddleback and 
Snowden. But these isolated instances sink into insignifi- 
cance by the side of a host of true Celtic names like 
Thames and Tamar, Avon and Severn, Cam and Isis, Ouse 
and Derwent, Wye or Way, Medloch and Lune, which have 
preserved their primeval forms. 

It is peculiarly strange that here, as elsewhere, the 
names of rivers, and especially of more important rivers, 
should be memorials of the very earliest races. They 
seem to survive where all other names have changed ; they 
seem to possess an almost indestructible vitality. Cities 
are seen to rise and to perish ; the sites of human habi- 
tations are known to us no more ; but the ancient river 
names are handed down from generation to generation, 
and from race to race. Even the names of the eternal 
hills are less permanent than those of the ever-changing 
waters. Over the whole of Europe we find towns known 
by Roman or Teutonic names standing on the banks of 
streams which still retain their ancient Celtic names. 



NAMES OF PLACES. 85 

Throughout the whole of England there is hardly a river 
name which is not Celtic. 

With all other Celtic names they most abound, of course, 
where the Britons remained longest in power; but they 
furnish, with very few exceptions, altogether the oldest 
topographical nomenclature of England. Hence the old 
couplet relating to Cornwall, how, — % 

" By tre, ros, pol, Ian, caer, and pen, 
You know the most of Cornish men ; " 

which Celtic words signify a town, a heath, a pool, a 
church, a rock, and a head or promontory. We have 
already alluded to the strange evidence of historical jus- 
tice which has enabled the ill-treated Celt to give to the 
empire its final and grandest name of Great Britain. Of 
minor names we have the ancient Pen, which abounds in 
Cornwall and Wales. Thus we find Pen Pont, the head 
of the bridge, and Pendennis in Cornwall, the fortified 
headland. Penrose and Penzance both mean the end of 
the valley, and Pen Mon is the extreme end of the isl- 
and of Mona. So in England proper, there is Pen and 
Penard in Somerset, Upper and Lower Pen in Stafford- 
shire, and numerous other names of like origin in the 
midland counties. As we approach the north the Gaelic 
form Ben begins to prevail, as in Ben Morris, Benlomond, 
Benledi, and many others. Oenn is considered by some 
as another Gaelic form of the same root, and appears in 
Kenmore, Cantire, Kinrose and Kenmare in Ireland. But 
the original Pen, as a name for mountains, is by no means 
confined to Great Britain : it occurs widely diffused all 
over Europe, wherever Celtic races once ruled. Far in 
the southeast we find the Pennine chain of Alps, the 
Apennines in the west, and Mount Pindus in distant 
Greece. 

In Pen Hill we have a remarkable name made up of 
two words belonging to different languages, but meaning 



86 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

almost the same thing, — a pleonasm arising from the 
ignorance of the people at large, to whom the word Pen 
no longer conveyed a clear and definite meaning. Similar 
repetitions occur elsewhere. Thus in the name of Wans- 
beck-water, wane is probably a corruption of Celtic avon 
(river), beck is Norse for water, and water itself a pure 
English addition. A similar instance occurs in Calabria, 
where the rc-mantic Mongibello shows us a compound of 
the Norman niont with the Arabic gebel, which has the 
same meaning. There also the reign of the Arabs had 
been too short to leave in the mind of the people a recol- 
lection of the signification of the foreign word, and thus 
was produced the strange hybrid. 

Besides Pen we have the two terms Aber and Inver, both 
meaning mouth, but the one Cymric, the other Gaelic. It 
is one of the rare instances of a clear line of division being 
maintained for centuries between two kindred races, that 
there is not a single name with Aber to be found in Ire- 
land, in the Hebrides, or on the west coast of Scotland, 
marking thus the outposts of the Cymric settlements with 
unmistakable precision. Where they were permanently 
established, on the eastern coast, the Aber begins again to 
show itself frequently, but above all in Cumberland, to 
which they gave their name and where they left their mark 
long after their final expulsion into Wales. This Wales, 
however, is not, as is often imagined, a Celtic, but a Saxon 
name, for by the new invaders the Britons were looked 
upon as a race of Weales or strangers ; as to their breth- 
ren at home the Italians were also Welshmen, and the 
Germans call Italy to this day Welshland. Thus the 
Anglo-Saxons called the first Britons also Weales, from 
whence our Wales, and those that were driven to the 
western extremity of the island, in order to distinguish 
them from the former, Cornweales ; whence their land has 
obtained its still existing name of Cornwall. 

This distribution of Aber and Inver is easily ascertained 



NAMES OF PLACES. 87 

by a glance at the map ; and the peculiar position of the 
localities that bear this name explains their meaning. Thus 
Abemethy and Inverary are identical; Aberdeen is at the 
mouth of the Den, and Abergavenny at the place where 
the Usk and the Gavenny meet. Berwick was anciently 
Aberwick, and Plumber in like manner Hum Aber. 

It is surmised, and not without good reason, that the 
word Ebor in Eboricum, our York, is a lost Celtic word, 
corresponding to Aber, if not in reality identical with it, 
and still surviving in the sadly mutilated form of the mod- 
ern name. The name of the town of Barmouth, in North- 
ern Wales, was formed of two Celtic words, Aber and Man, 
but as Celtic was gradually forgotten, and with it the mean- 
ing of the word Aber, the Man was changed into Mouth, 
to designate still the local position of the place. 

Avon is the Celtic word for river, and remains unchanged 
in the case of many streams. The English Avon is im- 
mortal, its namesakes abound in England and in Scotland, 
and even in Ireland one, at least, has been rendered famous 
by Spenser, as 

" Sweet Awniduff, which of the Englishmen 
Is cal'de>Blackwater." 

The Celtic Cam, meaning crooked, has taken to itself a 
Saxon mate, and thus formed Cambridge, while the Camel, 
a crooked river of Cornwall, has entered into the name of 
the little village of Camelford. To this ancient derivation 
Dayton refers, in connection with its devious course, when he 
states that u she doth her proper course neglect, ever since 

" the British Arthur's blood 
By Modred's murd'rous hand was mingled with her flood." 

The old Ched-dar, hill-stream, survives in like manner, in 
the name of the river itself, and in the more familiar town, 
in its Cheddar cliffs, and famous Cheddar cheese. 

Strath meant a valley, and has given us Strathclyde ; and 
Aih, a ford, survives in Athlone, properly Ath-luain, the ford 



88 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

of St. Lua ; and in Athleague, the ford of rocks. Ard, which 
means high, reappears in Ardmore and Ardrassan, and the 
old compound, Ard-dene, high wood, which has been pre- 
served entire and unchanged in the town of Arden, in War- 
wickshire, which was first so called from an ancient forest, 
no doubt far more familiar to Shakespeare than the corre- 
sponding name of the Ardennes, in Belgium. JBal, a city, 
appears in numerous Welsh and Irish towns. Den, a shel- 
tered region, has become a thorough English word, and 
hardly owes any longer allegiance to its own idiom. In 
Bangor, we read quite a historic lesson. It means Great 
Circle, and derives its name from the fact that at the first 
introduction of Christianity among the Britons, circles {gov) 
were formed for the purpose of better organization. When, 
subsequently, one of these circles became more numerous 
or powerful, it was called a Great Circle, {Ban- Gov,) and 
thus soon became the common designation of a superior 
monastery or congregation. Most of these names have 
long survived the language that gave them birth. Only in 
Cornwall the latter lingered longer. That province had 
its own dialect, long carefully preserved, and last used in 
divine service in Landewednach, the southernmost parish 
of England, about the year 1680. One or two generations 
later, it was still currently spoken in the region west of 
Penzance, and the last person who is known to have used 
it exclusively, was a woman called Polly Denreath, who 
died only toward the end of last century. 

One of the most thoroughly Celtic parts of England is 
the ancient Mona of Caesar, now the Isle of Man, where not 
only the local topography speaks of the Celts, but where, 
down to the present century, the local idiom, called Manx, 
a Celtic dialect, was generally understood, and even used 
in the church service of many remoter districts. A Manx 
sermon, we are told, is now but rarely heard, and though 
the language is still employed in some official formulas of 
the Tynewald or Ancient Court, like the " La Reine le 



NAMES OF PLACES. 89 

veult " of Parliament, the old idiom of the island is very 
nearly extinct. 

These local names are all the more important for our 
knowledge of Celts and Celtic, as there are but few other 
traces of their language left in modern English. The yew, 
anciently spelt eugh and yugh, is commonly considered as 
still bearing its Celtic name. Ewhurst, near Basingstroke, 
no doubt received its name from the number of yew-trees, 
of great antiquity, for which it is famous ; and so did prob- 
ably Ewridge, a hamlet in the parish of Colerne, in Wilt- 
shire. With a few such exceptions, however, the number 
of Celtic words in English is very small, and of little im- 
portance. This must be mainly attributed to the fact, that 
there existed no Celtic MSS., because the people never 
wrote, and the Druids, as Caesar tells us, thought it improper 
to commit their doctrines to writing. All their myths and 
songs were handed down orally, and by far the larger part 
of our knowledge of British Celts is derived exclusively 
from tradition. Wlien the Romans subsequently con- 
quered the island, they viewed the Druids as the props 
and supports of Celtic nationality, which must be destroyed 
to the very root. They took their measures accordingly, 
and their efforts were but too successful. Still, there are 
some Celtic words, which have remained in English mainly 
because they represent purely Celtic things, as reel, hilt, 
clan, pibroch, and plaid. Goat, cart, prank, balderdash, hap 
(ly), pert, and sham, have only lately established their claim 
to be true Celtic words. 

Next came the Romans, and threw up their earthworks 
and roads and walled camps, which still, though long in 
ruin, tell the tale of the strong hands that raised them, and 
to which, here and there, a Latin name still clings. They 
came, they conquered, and left again, exercising, after all, but 
little influence on our language during their occupation of the 
British isles. Hence, we find that among local names, also, 
there are but few, which are with certainty both Old Latin 



90 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

and modern English. We know, in fact, but three : castrum, 
stratum, and colonia. The first survived, perhaps, in a few 
cases, without any change at all; it was, however, more 
frequently added by the Saxons to local names, in order to 
designate a Roman site, and these names are very numer- 
ous. It remained caster in the Anglican and Danish dis- 
tricts, whilst in the Saxon districts it changed into cester. 
The ancient Durobrivae, on the river New, thus survives 
as Castor ; Ancaster proves its origin by the many Roman 
coins found there, and Tadcaster, Doncaster, the ancient 
Danum, and Lancaster, on the river Lune, have the same 
origin. The Latin word was at an early period changed 
into Cester, as in Cirencester and Gloucester, the ancient 
Glevae Castrum, and in Exeter, the great city of Isca, which 
changed its Roman name into Exan-ceastre, from the river 
Exe. In Oxfordshire, Bicester and Alcester appear to be 
Roman sites, a presumption which, in the case of Leicester, 
has been amply proved by interesting remains of ancient 
mansions, and fine, tessellated pavements. Manceter, in 
Warwickshire, formerly Mandressedum, has lost an s, and 
Wroxeter is a violent contraction of Wreaken Ceaster, a 
name derived from the neighboring Wrehin Hill. A still 
later development of the Latin name is the softened Chester, 
repeated in Chesterholm, the old Vindolena, and Great Ches- 
ters, on the site of iEsica. It has given us, in like manner, 
Chichester, founded by Cissa, the son of Ella, and Colchester, 
the first Roman city, which was made a Colonia ; which, 
however, may have taken its name from the river Colne. 
Rochester, on the Medway, and great Manchester, Silchester, 
whose walls, still to be traced in the northern part of Hamp- 
shire, once included a circuit of three miles, and Winchester 
— all bear the impress of their antiquity. The latter cor- 
responds, in quite a striking manner, to the French Bicetre ; 
as in Germany the city of Cassel, in Hesse, represents the 
ancient Castellum, derived from the Latin castrum. 

The second Latin word of great importance for our local 



NAMES OF PLACES. 91 

names is stratum, which recalls to us at once the magnifi- 
cent roads that traversed the island in many directions, 
built, no doubt, partly, at least, by the manual labor of our 
British forefathers, but laid out by Roman engineers and 
finished under Roman direction and control. Each of the 
great lines of roads, constructed chiefly, if not exclusively, 
for the purpose of safe military occupation and control of 
the country, was called a strata by the Romans of the 
declining empire, and the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Eng- 
land adopted the word, which closely resembled a Gothic 
word of their own, as straet, adding it subsequently to many 
places situated on the old line of the Roman road. A vil- 
lage so situated became easily Stratton or Stretham, mean- 
ing Street Town, or Street Home, and if there was a ford 
near by, as readily Stratford, so that these and similar 
names often mark for long distances the course of former 
Roman roads, even where all other traces have disappeared. 
Ardwick le Street in Yorkshire, Chester le Street in Dur- 
ham, Stretton, and others, thus tell us of their proximity 
to a Roman road. Portway, a name that belongs to several 
places, is in like manner connected with the military lan- 
guage of the Romans. Cold Harbor is said to occur as the 
name of seventy places in the neighborhood of the ancient 
lines of road, and seems to have signified a ruined house 
or station, where travellers could find shelter, but nothing 
else, after the manner of the German Kalte Herberge. 
It thus became a Saxon designation of a Roman locality, 
while often the idioms of the succeeding races mingle in 
the same name. Thus it is not a little curious that in 
Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon, we have the 
three successive masters of England represented jointly: 
the Celt, in the ancient name of the river, the Roman, in 
the first part of Stratford, and the Saxon, in the second half. 
Golonia, the proud title of many a provincial town 
throughout the vast empire, survives here and there in 
local names, as in the above-mentioned Colchester, where 



92 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

the ponderous masonry of the walls of the ancient city of 
Camalodunum shows to this day how well the Romans 
guarded against the recurrence of such a calamity as was 
sustained there by the surprised and overpowered soldiers 
of the Ninth Legion, on the revolt under Boadicea. In 
the North we have Lincoln, once the noble city of Lindum, 
situated on a lofty hill, and commanding extensive views. 

Besides these three great sources of modern names, we 
find not unfrequently other traces of Roman greatness, as 
in the case of the great wall of the Emperor Hadrian? 
which stretched from the Solway Firth to the mouth of the 
Tyne. Traces of the sites and names of Roman towns 
abound here, beginning with those of Segedunum, now 
Wallsend, near the eastern end of the gigantic work, now 
far more celebrated for its mineral treasures than the an- 
cient Segedunum, the place of which it occupies. Among 
other local names, derived in like manner, may be men- 
tioned Chester on the Wale, Walltown, Wallwick and Thirl- 
wall, where the river passes (drills) through the wall, a 
locality from which, in all probability, the name of the 
eminent scholar was originally derived. 

The familiar name of Wattling Street, still surviving in 
the heart of the city of London, is one of the etymological 
mysteries which have not yet been solved. It was the 
well-known name the Saxons gave to the great Roman 
road that ran from Dover through Canterbury and Lon- 
don, across the island to Chester and the coaet of Wales, 
and remained one of the principal public thoroughfares 
long after the Roman rule had ceased. The fact that the 
Milky Way passed somewhat in the same way across the 
heavens, led the Anglo-Saxons to transfer the name to the 
stars, and even Chaucer speaks of it still thus : — 

" So then, quoth he, cast up thine eye 
Se yonder, lo, the galaxie 
The which men yclepe the Milky Way, 
For it is white and some parfay 
Ycallen it have Watlinge Strete." 



NAMES OF PLACES. 93 

It is remarkable that no name of the bridges survives, 
which these magnificent roads must necessarily have had 
over the rivers they crossed. Undoubted ruins of such 
bridges have been found, and the ancient names of Roman 
towns or stations show that they must have been situated 
near a bridge, but their names have invariably become 
Saxon. Thus the ancient Pontes on the Thames, near 
Windsor, survives only as Staines (stones), and the famous 
Pons Actii on the Tyne has been altogether modernized 
into New Castle. 

The derivation of Pontefract and Ponteland from pont, 
is extremely doubtful, so also that of Bridgeport from 
portus. 

Traces of Roman legions survive here and there in local 
names, as in Lexdon, Legionis Dunum, and Caerloon, Isca 
Legionum (?). 

Other races followed in rapid succession, invading the 
island on all accessible points, holding some parts of the 
coast for a generation or two, and then disappearing again. 
Of these only one, the Frisians, have left behind them 
really valuable and interesting traces in local names. They 
came from the country between the Scheldt and the Weser, 
on both sides of the river Ems, but also from the islands on 
the eastern coast of Denmark. They were so nearly re- 
lated, in race and in language, to their successors, the An- 
glo-Saxons, that Wilfrith, bishop of York, being accidentally 
thrown upon the coast of Frisia, could preach to the people 
he found there the gospel of Christ in his own native tongue, 
the Anglo-Saxon, and baptize not only the princes but many 
thousands of the people. The Frisians are ill-treated cous- 
ins of our English, and it is hardly creditable to the latter 
that they should ignore their relatives merely because they 
have not succeeded in maintaining their position among 
the great nations. They were once masters of a large por- 
tion of the German seaboard, though now they are much 
broken up and intermixed with other races. Of all ancient 



94 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

dialects none has a closer connection with Anglo-Saxon 
than Old Frisic ; and of all modern dialects perhaps none 
has such strong points of resemblance with English as New 
Frisic. Thus on all the Continent they alone use the word 
woman as we do in English. Like all other races, the 
Frisians also have left their traces most distinctly in those 
parts of Great Britain where they dwelt longest. There 
is, to this day, a remarkable coincidence of local names in 
Kent with those of Frisia, and especially of Holstein, be- 
cause this country alone, of all the homes of early invaders, 
has not been in the hands of foreigners, and thus its lan- 
guage has been left comparatively undisturbed. The dia- 
lect of West Somersetshire resembles their language more 
than any other, and their modern words even correspond 
so closely to our own that some of Shakespeare's plays 
have been translated into Frisic, almost word for word. 
They still hold themselves our kinsmen, and show the like- 
ness of the two tongdes in the common saying, — 

" Good butter and good cheese 
Is good English and good Friese." 

With the exception, however, of the diminutive termina- 
tion kin which we clearly owe to them, it is extremely 
difficult to separate in modern English what is due to them, 
and what to the speech of the Angles. For these came 
themselves from that part of the duchy of Slesvic, which is 
called Frisia Minor, where the very place is shown at Gun- 
dern, from whence they embarked, when they went forth 
finally to take possession of their conquest in Britain 
(Westfalia I. p. 58). It must also be borne in mind that 
long before the Romans finally retired from the island a 
considerable element of Saxon had already obtained pos- 
session of the southeast coast, and that even Caesar men- 
tions already the great extent of German immigration into 
England. These settlements must necessarily have affected 
the nomenclature of these parts of the island, and it is fair 
to presume that many, if not most, of the Saxon names are 
at least as old as the time of Alfred. 



NAMES OF PLACES. 95 

More remarkable is the influence exercised on local 
names by the conquerors who next came to carve out for 
themselves a new kingdom in England. They formed part 
of that wonderful race of Scandinavians, whose ships made 
their way into every creek and inlet in the British islands 
and in Northern France, and who first landed as pirates, 
and then seized as conquerors, the sway of hapless Sicily, 
Normandy, and England. In the latter country they were 
very generally designated simply as Danes, and first appear 
under the indefinite name of " Pagani, Nbrmanni, sive 
Dani" in Asser's " Life of Alfred." Their proper name, 
however, was Vikings, not as is very generally believed from 
any assumption of the title of king, with which the name 
has nothing to do, but from the word wic or vik, which 
meant in their own language a place by the sea, and the 
patronymic ing. From the days of Egbert to those of 
the Conquest, the annals of England are fast bound to the 
history of these Norsemen and to their northern kingdoms. 
Even before the time of Alfred these daring invaders had 
settled themselves firmly down in Northumberland, and 
with that great monarch began the fatal system of buying 
off their hostility by means of yielding up to them large 
portions of Saxon soil. One sovereign after another fol- 
lowed this unfortunate and unwise policy, down to Ethelred 
the Unready, who brought the greatest misfortune of all 
upon his ill-fated kingdom. After having in vain tried to 
buy them off, first with ten thousand, and then with thirty 
thousand pounds weight of gold, he attempted in an evil 
hour the midnight massacre of St. Boice's day in 1002, and 
thus delivered England into the hands of the infuriated 
Danes. Then followed the days of his flight to France, 
and the subjugation of England by Canute the Great, and 
Sueno the Blessed, when the laws of the Danes, the Dane- 
lag, became paramount in England. Thus it remained, 
even after the land was reconquered by the Saxons, and at 
the time of the Conquest England was still more than half 



96 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Scandinavian. Besides the great district of Northumber- 
land, which reached far across the border into Scotland and 
the province of Anglia, the nationality reached as far south 
as Derby and Rugby, in the very heart of Mercia, and all 
over the land the Saxon language was " laced and patched " 
with northern words and idioms. 

Their language gave, besides, a general and permanent 
coloring to our English, which now mainly shows in the 
provincial dialects of the North, and in local names along 
the coast and the great river-courses, reminding us thus 
constantly that England owes to the Danes, and not to the 
Saxons, its fondness for the sea and its ability to " rule the 
waves." The people, also, with their darker hair, smaller 
bones, and sterner countenance, betray their descent from a 
northern race. This applies especially to Northumberland 
and the North and West Riding of Yorkshire, with its 
famous old metrical romance of Havelok the Dane, from 
which we have derived a name that has been made once 
more in our day immortal by a son of England, whose 
heroic deeds have been recounted wherever the English 
tongue is spoken. 

Here former Anglian or Saxon occupants had perished 
in war, or had been expelled from their native seats, unless 
they submitted to the invaders. Among the different forms 
of government adopted in this large Scandinavian popula- 
tion, were not only the usual power of kings and jarls, but 
also the peculiar one known as the Confederation of the 
Five Burghs, namely, Lincoln, Leicester, Derby, Notting- 
ham, and Stamford, with which York and Chester commonly 
acted in concert. It was here, of course, that the Dene- 
laga had its fullest sway, and the division of the whole of 
England into the Dene-laga, Myrcna-laga, and West-Seaxna- 
laga, which designated the several districts under Danish, 
Mercian, and Saxon law, became of such importance that 
it continued till long after the Norman Conquest. In the 
laws published under Henry L, (1109-1135,) " the province 



NAMES OF PLACES. 97 

of the Danes " is especially mentioned as one of the three 
parts of England. They were, however, by no means con- 
fined to these districts, for we find, e. g., that the Orkneys 
as well as Shetland are in name, manners, and language 
true Norse. Sodor reminds us yet of the Danish for 
Souther, and Sutherland itself was so called because this 
northernmost county of Scotland was nevertheless to the 
south of Norway. 

As would naturally be expected, the Danes have left 
behind them a vast number of names of places which they 
bestowed, and which are still preserved. Of these the most 
important and the most frequent are by, meaning originally 
a farm, and then a village or town ; thorpe, a hamlet ; 
thwaite, a piece of cleared land ; ey, an isle, together with 
a few similar endings like holme, top, beck, ness, &c. The 
most frequent of these is by, which forms at least one fourth 
of all the names of towns in lincolnshire. The Danes 
were fond of adding it to the names of their gods, and thus 
made Thoresby and Baldersby, justifying the poet when he 
sings of the Northmen, that they " gave their gods the land 
they won." Other Danish names of the same kind make 
it, however, plain that these were mere reminiscences of 
home, and that Christianity was the religion of the people 
when they gave these names. i&V£fo/-underdale and Kirkby- 
moorside, Kirkby in Lonsdale and Crossby show that long 
since the Christian bishop had driven out the heathen 
priest, and the Christian Church and Cross had succeeded 
to the pagan altar. Where neither God nor Church stood 
sponsor, the name of the owner of the place served instead, 
and thus were formed Rollesby (Rolf s-by), Ormsby (Gorm's- 
by), Grimsby, (whose vessels, when they enter a Danish 
port, can even now claim the exemptions derived from the 
Danish founder,) Haconby, Swainsby, Ingersby and Osgodby. 
Even persons who were not Danes supplied occasionally 
their names to the place, as in Saxby, Frankby, Scotby, and 
Flemingby, which must at least have been situated near 
7 



98 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

large Danish settlements, so that the final by could be fa- 
miliar to the people around. Nor did the favorite termina- 
tion disdain to enter into an alliance with common nouns ; 
thus Derwentby, Appleby, and Netherby, are easily understood, 
and Coningsby is the Danish form of our English Cun- 
ningham, meaning literally King's Home. Digby is Dike 
Town, and the only southern place thus named is old 
Kokeby, now famous Rugby. The spelling is Anglicized in 
Battersbee, Ashbee, and Hornsbee. The " Rape of Bramber " 
in Sussex preserves to this day the memory of the old Ice- 
landic division of lands by Hreppar, from which the Danish 
word rebe is derived, meaning to measure, from the in- 
strument employed, a rep (rope), — very much as we speak 
in modern English of a " hide " of land, from its being 
measured by a thong. 

Our word By-law owes its origin to the same Danish 
word by. The common error which regards a by-law as 
one of inferior importance, arises from a confusion in the 
mind of the people, produced by the idea which we connect 
with the preposition by. The Danes, on the contrary, used 
the word to designate the laws of byes or towns, as dis- 
tinguished from the general laws of the kingdom. It may 
be mentioned in this connection, that a few such Danish 
names bear record of political changes in the state of the 
kingdom, by their own verbal changes. Thus the Anglo- 
Saxon town of Streoneshalch was rebaptized by the Danes 
as Whitby, the White Town, and North wearthig as Derby or 
Deer Town, in analogy with Derwent and Deerhurst. 

Thorpe has in like manner furnished a large number of 
local names in those districts which were most frequented 
by the Danes. Ullesthorpe reminds us again of a Scan- 
dinavian deity, whilst Bassingthorpe and Shillingthorpe are 
probably the only two out of all the names in Lincolnshire, 
compounded with thorpe, which are derived from family 
names. Bishopthorpe and Nunthorpe tell their own tale. 

How very important these names may be for historical 



NAMES OF PLACES. 99 

researches, appears strikingly in the Isle of Man, where 
curiously enough, the names which denote places of Chris- 
tian worship are all of Norwegian origin, and thus clearly 
prove the late date up to which heathenism must have pre- 
vailed there. 

The word ea for our Island, is not only Danish but also 
Frisic, and may, therefore, occasionally belong to the latter 
language. It is at least as suggestive of historic changes 
as by. Thus when the island of Mona, of classic an- 
tiquity, which had already once changed its British name 
into the Saxon Maenige or island of Maen, was overrun 
by king Egbert, it was called Angles-ey, the Englishman's 
island, and has ever since retained its name as Anglesea. 
The older Celtic name has, however, not entirely dis- 
appeared with the Saxon conquest, but survives in the 
Menai Hundred, the Menai Strait, and Menai Bridge, and 
in the name of the parish Penmon, the Head of Mon. 
Sheppy and Mersey are, from of old, the islands of Sheep, and 
of the Mere or sea. Roodey, the name of a meadow near 
Chester, now used as a race-course, was originally the island 
of the Holy Rood or Cross, lying as it did between the 
walls of the ancient town and the banks of the river Dee. 
Bardsey was called the Bards' island, as being the last 
retreat of Welsh bards. Ely has its name of eel-island 
from the abundance of that fish in the neighborhood, 
100,000 of which were annually paid to the lord of the manor 
as rent ; Elmore and Ellesmere are said to have the same 
derivation. Jersey, however, with its apparent identity with 
these names, ought to be a warning to overhasty etymolo- 
gists, as it is derived from Caesarea and has nothing to do 
with Dane or Saxon. 

Besides these names of localities the Danes have given 
us also some words for mere features of landscape, as billow, 
gar and elding. Gil is from the old Norse, and means a small 
ravine ; it enters into the formation of the proper names 
of Gilbert and Gilmore ; whilst forse, a waterfall, has helped 



100 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

to form the famous name of Wilberforce. A hungry sand- 
piper is called knot from king Canute, as we find in Camden's 
" Britannia/' (p. 971,) and as Drayton's " Polyolbion " con- 
firms it in these lines . — 

" The Jcnot that called was Canutus' bird of old, 
Of that great king of Danes his name that still doth hold, 
His appetite to please that far and near was sought 
For him, as some have said, from Denmark hither brought." 

As Canute still lives in Knutsford, the great Hacon may 
possibly survive in Hacon's island, Hackney, and the chil- 
dren of God, Aesbjorn, in our Osborne. In Danish times, 
moreover, their own northern habit of counting not by days 
but by nights, from sunset to sunset, prevailed in England, 
an evidence of which survives in our sennight, fortnight 
and Twelfth Night Among less frequent evidences of 
this Danish influence may be mentioned occasional allu- 
sions to the national standard, the Raven, which occur in 
some local names. Thus in Ravenhill, in the North Riding 
of York, which claims to be the place on which the Danes 
planted the Reafn (raven) on landing under Inguar in 
876, whilst in other places it may simply recall the worship 
of Odin, on whom the raven attended, as the eagle on 
Jupiter. Hence names like Ravenstone, Ravensworth, and 
Ravenspur, which has since been swallowed up by the sea, 
like the master of Ravenswood himself. 

As the Devil plays an important part in English local 
names, calling bridges, caves, and causeways after his name, 
so the Danes also have bequeathed to us the name of at 
least one evil spirit, a wild and rough being who played the 
part of Satyr or Faun in their gloomy mythology. The 
Old Norse called him Scratte, and hence Scratby and 
Scratta, on the borders of Derbyshire, which is still so 
firmly believed to be haunted that no house is built there. 
The sprite survives even in America as Old Scratch, a polite 
designation for the Devil, taken from Scandinavian mythol- 
ogy, as Old Nick is for the same purpose borrowed from 
the water sprite of Old-High German. 



NAMES OF PLACES. 101 

A much more important relic, however, of Danish man- 
ners and customs which survives in our local names, is 
found in the word thing. This was derived from the name 
the Danes gave to the assemblies which they held, in com- 
mon with ail Scandinavians and Germans, in the open air, 
and in some place of peculiar sanctity. It survives to this 
day in the Scandinavian Storthing, the Great Court or 
National Assembly. It is thus that Thingwall in Cheshire 
obtained its name, from being a place of meeting of the 
Thing ; so also are formed the names of Dingwall, in the 
north of Scotland, Tingwall in the Shetland Islands, and 
the slightly modified Tynewald in the Isle of Man. Some 
of the petty courts of this kind, moreover, seem not to have 
been held in the open air, like the larger assemblies, but in 
the house, and hence were known under the name of Hust- 
ings. Such a judicial tribunal met in the cities of York 
and Lincoln, in a few smaller places, and in London, where 
it has been preserved down to our own times. It has been 
suggested, and not without great plausibility, by the great 
Danish scholar, Warsaae, that traces of these Things may 
be found in the triple division of Yorkshire and Lincoln- 
shire into Ridings. Whilst the word is generally traced 
back to the Saxon thrithings or thirdlings, it must not be 
overlooked that in Scandinavia the division of provinces 
into thirds, tredinger, is quite common and corresponds 
exactly to the North English trithing. 

Every now and then some new Norse word makes its 
appearance in English writers, but few have become perma- 
nently at home there. Among the latter are some which 
the English soldiers in the Thirty Years' War learnt from 
their comrades, whilst they served under the great Swede, 
Gustavus Adolphus. Thus we obtained 'plunder and life- 
guard, which comes, not from the English word life, but 
from the Swedish lif, (German leib,) meaning body, and 
thus is identical with body-guard. Furlough also was 
introduced at the same time from the Swedish forlof, 



102 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

spelt sometimes furloofe. Among English words recently 
claimed by Mr. Coleridge for the Danish or Norse we find 
bait, bray, dish, dock, dwell, flimsy, fling, gust, ransack, rap 
and whim. 

A great change was produced in British nomenclature, 
and hence, in English names generally, when the Saxons 
came into the land. A conquering people, who subdue an 
indigenous population and reduce them to serfdom, catch 
only with an ill-will and great reluctance, the names of 
objects around them. They repeat them as well as they 
can, and retain them more from haughty indolence than 
from choice. But when they form themselves new objects 
of the kind, when they make an inclosure or erect a for- 
tress, they take the elements of the new name, not from 
the language of the conquered land but from their own. 
This was the case with the Anglo-Saxon idiom, for the set- 
tlers who spoke it gained possession, not of a sudden, in 
one day, as the Normans did afterwards, but step by step, 
during an obstinate conflict which lasted for centuries. 
Besides, they remained long without any centralization of 
power, and exterminated or expelled a large proportion of 
the British race before they themselves united under a 
common ruler. In this fierce conflict they rooted out the 
British language, as well as the British people, and drove 
both to the extremities of the island, there to linger and 
to pine away in helpless isolation. Hence it is that the 
Saxons have left by far the strongest impress of all on the 
land and its names. 

The race itself shows its blood to this day in those por- 
tions of England where their settlements were most numer- 
ous ; in the midland counties, in inland dales, in all remoter 
regions, their large frame, muscular and massive now as 
of old, their fair hair and blue eyes, are easily recognized. 
The ancient blood is heard in the broad, loud speech of 
these men, and they can read their title clearly in the names 
of all leading localities. 



NAMES OF PLACES. 103 

" In ford, in haul, in ley, and tun 
The most of English surnames run,'* 

says an old ditty, and recent researches have confirmed the 
fact that these syllables belong to one fourth of all local 
names mentioned in Saxon charters. Ford is, of course, 
the present word of the same meaning, but it was by so 
much more common then, as fords were more numerous 
than bridges. It is now mostly attached in local names to 
common words, as in Bradford, the broad ford ; in Herford, 
the ford fit for an army ; and in Oxford, not the ford for 
oxen, but the ford over the river Ouse. At other times it 
is added to the names of great leaders, who have made cer- 
tain fords historical, as in the case of Uffa, in Suffolk, from 
whom Ufford bears its name ; and in Knutsford, from Canute, 
the Dane. Bridgford, in Nottinghamshire, combines the 
new and the old regime. Ham is our modern home, the 
word so peculiarly dear to all Saxon hearts, because it is 
really the most sacred, the most intimately felt, of all the 
words by which the dwelling of man is distinguished. By 
its historic associations, it gains, in local names, an addi- 
tional hold upon our sympathies. Thus the memory of 
the first Christian Queen of England, Ebba, lives still in 
Ebba's home, now Bpsom ; nor is it quite unimportant that 
in the South of England it should always have its full form, 
home, whilst the sterner North has as invariably shortened 
it into ham. St. Keyna, a saint of whom otherwise few 
would know, has left his memory in Keynsham ; and Horsa, 
the companion of Hengist, protests, by his town of Horsham, 
against being treated as a simple banner, with a horse for 
its emblem. Farnham still abounds in ferns ; and Denham 
lies in a snug and cozy den ; Langham and Higham, Shore- 
ham and Cobham, explain themselves, while the diminutive 
hamlet applies with peculiar appropriateness to the well- 
named Waltham, the home in the woods or the weald. 
Hampden and Hampton have admitted an intruding p, 
which loves to slip in between labials and dentals ; and 



104 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

the State of New York boasts in its great city of the Goafs 
home, Gotham, of the father of modern humbugs, Barnum, 
whose home is not a barn, but an Eastern palace. 

It is very evident, from many of the examples mentioned, 
that our Anglo-Saxon fathers were peculiarly fond of con- 
necting their family names with their dwelling-places. 
They remind us uncomfortably of the words of the Psalm- 
ist : — " Their inward thought is, that their houses shall 
continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all genera- 
tions ; they call their lands after their own names." (Ps. 
xlix. 11.) But the same habit, still so characteristic of the 
Saxon race at home and abroad, has prevailed in most ages 
and in most countries of the world. Great kings and con- 
querors applied their name to countries and cities as we 
do to farms and villas. Philip of Macedon gave his to 
Philippi, so famous in the history of Brutus and Cassius, 
and dearer to us all, because here tidings of the Gospel 
seem first to have been received with gladness by European 
listeners. Alexander and Antiochus left behind them Alex- 
andria and Antioch. The Caesars are remembered by name 
in Autun, once Augustodunum, Saragossa (Caesarea Au- 
gusta), Adrianople, and Constantinople. In the United States 
the name of the founder of the Republic was bestowed 
upon the capital city, Washington, and the name of the 
British Queen has been given to Victoria, in her great Aus- 
tralian empire. These examples of the rulers of the world 
have been very generally followed by the Dei Minores, and 
England, especially, abounds with local names of this nat- 
ure. These designations are generally recognized by their 
termination in -ing or -ling, and are not unfrequently of 
venerable antiquity. It has been ascertained that the 
names of places like Billing, Tarring, Sterling, Ttvining, 
and Basing, with their derivatives, were originally settle- 
ments of several members of the same family. In some 
instances, it is well known, this connection between a place 
and its ancient owner has never been severed through all 



NAMES OF PLACES. 105 

the intervening centuries, as in High Legh, in Cheshire, 
which has been inhabited from time immemorial by branches 
of the same old family. Even Buckingham, so long called 
the Home of the Beeches, is no longer allowed its poetical 
origin, but traced back to an ancient family of Bucks and 
Buckings, from whose residence the name is said to have 
been transferred to the surrounding shire. 

The sweet name of Leigh is the most recent and fullest 
form of the Saxon lea or ley, w T hich still survives unchanged 
in words familiar to every English farmer — the pasture 
ley, the clover lea, and even the sainfoin lea. Local names 
in ley abound in all Saxon regions, especially in Cheshire, 
where there are u as many Leighs as fleas," as the proverb 
bluntly says. Offley, near Hiichley, recalls the great OfFa, 
king of Essex ; Netley, so little creditable to farmers who 
generally abhor nettles, makes amends by its beautiful 
abbey, and Berkley conjures up before the mind's eye fair 
fields surrounded by birches. 

Of all Saxon names, however, those that denote an in- 
closure are by far the most numerous. This appears very 
natural when it is borne in mind that for more than a 
thousand years England has been known abroad as the 
land of inclosures of well-protected property. Hence the 
numerous words the English use to denote something 
hedged or walled in or inclosed, arising from the love of 
privacy and the exclusiveness of the English character. 
Those constantly recurring terminations, ton, ham, worth, 
fold, park, hargh, all convey this one prominent notion of 
inclosure and protection. 

Tun is, of this class, again by far the most frequent, be- 
cause its meaning adapts itself most readily to a great 
variety of habitations. Originally derived from an Anglo- 
Saxon verb, tynan, which meant simply to close or inclose, 
it was soon adapted to various purposes, now helping to 
count, when as ten, it meant the closed hands, and then as 
tyning, an inclosure, giving a name to a farm which still 



106 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

survives in many counties. Its use became all the more 
general, as the Celts had already, a fact little known among 
us, those regular and beautiful hedgerows, which are so 
striking a feature in English landscapes. These the Saxons 
readily adopted, giving the name of tun to every regularly 
hedged in, or fenced in, settlement, from whence it came 
finally to designate a town. This is well illustrated in 
Wickliffe's translation of the Bible, where the invited guest 
excuses himself with the words, " I have bought a town, 
and I have nede to go out and se it," (St. Luke xiv. 18,) 
and in the reference to it : " But they dispisiden and 
wenten forth, oon to his town, another to his merchandize." 
(St. Matt. xxii. 5.) In both places, town is used for the 
modern farm, whilst the word wyrt-tun, (St. Luke xiii. 
19,) is employed for "garden of herbs." Its latest and 
most peculiar meaning is found in tunnel, as an inclosed 
and covered way. Tunbridge is one of the few names in 
which its ancient form is fully preserved ; generally it has 
been either lengthened into town and toun, as in Hopetoun, 
or shortened into ton, as in Stratton, Leighton and Learning- 
ton. Acton, in Middlesex, requires the aid of its neighbor- 
hood abounding in oaks, and of its once noble " Old Oak 
Common," as part of the parish is still called, to remind us 
in its reduced form of the original Oaktown. Almost 
every county, however, has its Norton (North), Sutton 
(South), and its Newton. Local names, like the last men- 
tioned, were readily transferred to men, and thus we see in 
Milton the mill, in Burton and Warburton the burg, in Wal- 
ton the wall, and in Wotton the wold, in Staunton the stone, 
and the moor in Morton. 

Closely connected with this word, and yet different in 
origin and meaning, is our dun, and its many forms, all 
derived from the Anglo-Saxon dun, an eminence stretching 
out in a gentle slope, and hence applied to the sea-shore 
sands as downs. It is the same as the dunes of the Conti- 
nent, and the first part of famous Dunquerque, the French- 



NAMES OF PLACES. 107 

ified Kirk on the Downs. We use it likewise in our South 
Downs, in Landsdowne, Huntingdon, and Farringdon. The 
Scotch prefer placing it first, hence they say Dunbar, Dun- 
held, DunroUn and Dumbarton. Its shortest form appears 
in Maiden and Hampden. 

Such are some of the more prominent local names which 
have come down to us directly from our Saxon fathers. 
There is only one other of almost equal frequency, that of 
wic or ivick, which, however, is not found in German, but 
exists only in old English and Frisic, so that it ought per- 
haps to be more properly credited to the latter. The Ice- 
landic and Swedish also have wile, and etymologists have 
been fond of tracing its connection with the Latin vicus and 
the Greek oIkos. Lord Coke tells us, that it means a place 
on the sea-shore or on the banks of a river, and generally 
this definition is justified by the local position of places that 
bear such names. Alnewich, pronounced Annick, lies on 
the banks of the Alne, and Berwick is named after the Celtic 
Aber. Kerwick, Warwick, and Sedgwick, all remind us, by 
their hard final letter, of North of England speech, whilst in 
southern counties the softer wich prevails, as in Sandwich, 
Greenwich, Ipswich, Droitwich and Harwich. 

Careful researches have led to the discovery that the 
inland wicks are generally of Saxon origin, while those on 
the coast are as constantly derived from stations used by 
the sea rovers of Scandinavia. Those inland towns, how- 
ever, which end in wich, may have less to do with the 
Anglo-Saxon wic, than with the Norse vik ; for they are 
all noted for the production of salt, which was formerly 
obtained by evaporating salt water in shallow pans, called 
wyches. Hence a place for making salt came very nat- 
urally to be called a wych-house, and Nantwich and Dort- 
wich, and other places where rocksalt was found, took their 
names from such wych-houses, around which they were 
built. Hence Drayton says : — 

" The bracky fountains are those two renowned wyches, 
The Nantwich and the North" (Norwich). 



108 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

The first part of Nantwich is still pure Celtic, and the 
same which forms the French names Nantes, Nanteuil, and 
Nanterre, which thus preserve, in name at least, the old 
family connection long after every other trace of it has 
disappeared. 

The ancient name of burg 9 so frequent in all Germanic 
countries, is of course not wanting in England. It assumes 
there under varied circumstances varied names, changing 
from the full Scarborough to the shortened Edinboro 9 , and 
occasionally appearing as bury in Salisbury and other names. 
Aldborough, near York, corresponds thus, in its meaning of 
Old Town, to the Palaeocastro and Castelvecchio, which 
throughout modern Greece, Asia Minor, and the islands of 
the JEgean Sea, are so generally applied to any ancient 
site. Brough, in Westmoreland, has retained its simple, 
original meaning, and the same root prevails, but slightly 
altered, in the more familiar Brougham (Burgham). 

There are, finally, numerous local names derived from 
proper names of the Anglo-Saxons. We need not remind 
even the general reader of the Saxon element in Essex, Wes~ 
sex, Sussex, and Middlesex, or of the many Jutish designations 
left in the Isle of Wight, and on the opposite coast of 
Hampshire. The Angle's folk survive clearly enough, to 
the North and to the South, in Norfolk and Suffolk, and 
became finally sufficiently powerful to impart their name to 
the whole land under the national denomination of Angle- 
land or England. But individuals also made their name 
thus immortal. Thus, to mention but one example, the 
memory of the great and pious Ella survives in this manner 
in the parishes of Ellakirk and Ellabum, in the townships 
of Ella East, Ella West, and Ellerbeck, and in the chapelry 
of Ellard, all in Yorkshire. 

The Norman French, who were the next masters of 
England, have left us comparatively few names. This is 
mainly due to the fact, that they by no means conquered 
the Anglo-Saxon. It is true the language of the invaded 



NAMES OF PLACES. 109 

kingdom fled to the open country, to the fields and the 
woods, but there it stubbornly maintained its ground, vul- 
gar but strong, degraded but hearty, and, above all, reso- 
lutely determined not to be overcome. The Norman- 
French, in the mean time, led but a sickly, artificially pro- 
longed life in walled towers and gloomy castles. All the 
efforts of the Normans to impose their manners and their 
language on the conquered race remained wholly ineffec- 
tive. The mass of the people clung to their old habits and 
old words with wonderful energy. Hence, although the 
sixty thousand followers of the Conqueror were at once 
ennobled by the simple fact of their victory at Hastings, 
and large portions of the lands of England were at once 
appropriated to them as the reward of past, and an incite- 
ment to future, services, this change was not perceptible in 
the local names of any but smaller localities. To the 
latter belonged first of all the manors, into which the 
greater part of the country was parcelled out. Not 
a few of these manor-houses survive, though we can now 
hardly imagine the effect of ten thousand such man- 
sions suddenly appearing as so many marks of the con- 
quest, impressed in effect on every separate locality 
throughout the country. Along with these manors the 
Normans introduced into the local nomenclature of 
England numerous castles, which the Conqueror and his 
immediate successors caused to be erected in all parts of 
the land. They were needed to enable a handful of hated 
foreigners to overawe a large and rebellious population ; 
hence they were walled with stone and designed for resi- 
dence as well as for defence. The king himself owned 
many ; his barons followed the example, and thus the Earl 
of Mortaine built Montague in Somersetshire, and another 
Norman noble Beauvoir Castle. Frequently the Norman 
castle took its name from the neighboring locality, and so 
there still exist parishes called Castle Hedingham, Castle 
Gary, Castle Acre, &c. Most of the castles erected at a 



110 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

later period, and which had frequently served as mere dens 
of robbers, were subsequently destroyed under Henry II. 
In some instances, however, their names survive their ex- 
istence. Thus, Castle Baynard and Castle Mountfichet, which 
stood upon the banks of the Thames, near the cathedral of 
St. Paul, have ceased to exist since the great fire of Lon- 
don in 1666 ; but Baynard Castle is still the name of the 
city ward, in which that castle was once situated. As the 
Norman noble, even when willing to call his town or vil- 
lage by its old Saxon name, was yet not always able to lay 
aside altogether his early predilections, we find not un- 
frequently very eccentric French additions, as Adwick-fe- 
Street, Bolton-fe-Moor and Thornton-fe-Moorj Laughten-ew- 
Ze-Morthen, Poulton-Ze-Sand, Poulton-Ze-Tylde, and Buck- 
land-tout- Saints, with many others. In very few cases only 
were entirely new names bestowed, as in Battle, Beaudesert, 
Beaumanoir, Bellasis, Belsise, and Belleau. A mixture of 
old and new produced often not unpleasant effects. Thus 
Beaumaris, in the isle of Anglesea, looks French, but sounds 
as Bomorris like fair Anglo-Saxon. The old town of 
Ashby, the bye or town of the Essi, is but slightly disguised 
by its foreign owner's name, de la Zouche, who seems to 
have been desirous to impress upon posterity that he was 
" of the genuine stock." It was also a common custom 
simply to add the new owner's name to the Saxon name of 
the place, and already Camden has Hurst Pierpoint, and 
Hurst Monceaux, and Tarring Neville, and Tarring PeverelL 
Similar names are Aston- Turville, ^uYtoxi- Segrave, Burton- 
Latimer, Melton-Mo wbr ay, and many others. There is in 
the County of Essex a place of great natural strength on 
a small river, which gave it anciently the name of Depen- 
beck — the deep brook. The French conquerors, finding 
the castle renowned in many a ballad, called it Malpas, and 
as such it became famous in the annals of later Welsh wars. 
Other localities have fared worse and suffered sad mutila- 
tion of their once fair names. The famous T Widdzug, 



NAMES OF PLACES. Ill 

Conspicuous Mountain, in Wales, was surnamed Monthault 
by the Normans, and has sunk into inglorious Mold. More 
unfortunate still was the high-sounding Leiton Beau Desart, 
the grassy ground near the beautiful wooded land, which 
soon appears in public documents as Leiton Busart, and 
now has ignominiously subsided into Leighton Buzzard I 

Occasionally we find, moreover, among local names in 
England, not uninteresting allusions to certain striking 
features of the rule of the Normans. Such are the many 
names formed with forest, which did not mean w T ood, but 
indicated privileged localities, created mainly for, and en- 
joyed by, men of Norman blood. On the sea-coast the 
Cinque Ports are still known by their collective name, 
though their individual names of Sandwich, Hastings, Do- 
ver, New Eomney, and Hythe, are of a much earlier date. 
The Church has, of course, also left a strong impress of its 
power under Norman rule on numerous localities. They 
are easily recognized by their ecclesiastical titles, as Abbas- 
Combe, Abbotsbury, Priors Hardwick, Leamington-Pnors, 
Mm£-Wearmouth, Moukland, Toft-Mbnachorum, and Toller- 
Fratrum, by way of antithesis to Toller-Porcorum, the ad- 
joining parish. On the Tweed the stately rule of the 
monks of Melrose still lives in the well-known name of 
Abbotsford. Bishop's Lynn became subsequently by ex- 
change King's Lynn, whilst Kingsbury passed into Kings- 
bury-Bpiscopi ; so also Bishop-Auckland, Bishop-Stoke, and 
with double emphasis Bishop-Monhion. Nor ought we to 
omit, finally, the Knights-Templars, whose large possessions 
in England are still traceable in local names, and add to 
the Norman element. They are generally known by the 
addition of Temple, as at Temple in Cornwall, Temple- 
Bruer in Lincolnshire, TWp/e-Newsam in Yorkshire, &e. 
The head-quarters of these soldiers of Christ were in Lon- 
don, and the locality is still known as The Temple, now long 
in the possession of another profession — Cedunt arma togce. 

The slight impression which Norman-French has pro- 



112 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

duced on English local names is easily explained by the 
peculiar nature of the Conquest itself. The new ruler had 
acquired the kingdom by a single victory ; he claimed to 
succeed lawfully to a kinsman's crown, and promised 
solemnly to observe the laws granted by Edward the Con- 
fessor. The conquered nation remained on their native 
soil ; the nationality was not broken up and destroyed, as 
that of the Britons had been by the Saxon conquest. 
Only slight and rare changes have, therefore, taken place 
in the local names of the island since the Norman con- 
quest, and England is still, as she promises to remain for 
many a century to come, in name and in deed the cham- 
pion of the Saxon race. 

The case of American local names is entirely different 
from that of the names in Great Britain. There, succeed- 
ing races left their impress on hill and dale, city and vil- 
lage, river and lake, now in rude and uncouth terms, and 
then again in modern speech, but always intelligible, always 
in some way connected with the life of the people, and 
never wanting a historic basis. Here, on the contrary, a 
body of civilized men, who had already learnt to appreciate 
the advantage of an established nomenclature, came to a 
new country, and felt few wants more urgent than that of 
giving proper names to their future dwelling-places and the 
prominent objects that surrounded it. Now it seems to be 
beyond the power of man, under such circumstances, to 
invent new names. The Greeks, with all their fertility of 
invention and a wondrously pliant language, proved this 
in their colonies. In America, certainly, the poverty of 
imagination and the awkwardness in applying English 
names to new localities is perfectly astonishing, and has 
led to countless inconveniences and frequent ambiguities. 
The Canadians once had the matter made a subject of 
official complaint. A member of the House of Commons, 
we are told, who was born in the colonies, stated with 
much feeling, that the ill-treatment of her dependencies by 



NAMES OF PLACES. 113 

the mother country had gone so far as to induce a governor 
of Canada to name four new townships after his wife's pet 
dogs, and that two of them, called Flos and Tiny, still re- 
mained there ! In the United States things are infinitely 
worse. The census of 1860 shows an overwhelming num- 
ber of Athens and Spartas, thirteen Romes, and as many 
Rochesters. A facetious Englishman expressed lately- in 
an American paper his doubts whether the name of Wash- 
ington appeared on the lips of Americans as frequently 
now as formerly, when there were more than 133 towns 
called after the great founder of the Republic. This 
might be pardoned on the score of patriotism, but what 
shall we say to the taste that made nineteen Browns 
and ten Smiths, to say nothing of the trouble this must 
give to postmasters ! There were at the same time more 
than fifty places or townships called Centre, over seventy 
that bore the name of Liberty, and nearly one hundred 
and twenty named Union ; but this number also may pos- 
sibly hereafter be diminished. 



CHAPTER VHI. 

NAMES OF MEN. 

" Bonum nomen, bonum omen." 

Throughout the whole of antiquity, from the first 
records of the Bible down to the accounts of the early 
Greeks and Romans, there appears to have existed a mys- 
terious connection between names and their meaning. It 
is well known that this correspondence is so striking in 
many instances as to have induced the belief of an inspired 
or at least unconscious expression of the future fate of 
persons in their first naming. Thus the fathers of the 
Church saw in the words, " God called the light day and 
the darkness he called night," an evidence of the inability 
of man to name these things or anything else without the 
aid of the Creator, and others distinctly ascribe man's 
power of first naming the animals to a prophetic gift. 
Greek authors abound with instances of the vast impor- 
tance their countrymen attached to the meaning of proper 
names, from ^Eschylus's " Agamemnon," in which Helena is 
alluded to as having both Hell and Heaven in her name, 
to Herodotus, who mentions the encouragement which the 
accidental omen in the name of Hegesistratus, the leader 
of an army, gave at a critical moment. The Roman creed 
on this subject is boldly stated in the lines of Ausonius — 

4< Nam divinare est nomen componere, quod sit 
Fortunae, morum vel necis indicium." 

Cicero tells us that the rolls of Roman levies were sure 
to begin with favorable names like Victor, Felix, Faustus, 



NAMES OF MEN. 115 

or Secundus, and if they could obtain a Salvius Valerius to 
stand at the head of the list, the omen was hailed with 
delight An obscure Scipio once obtained the command 
in Spain merely upon the strength of his name ; while the 
great Scipio, as Livy tells us, reproached his mutinous 
soldiers for having obeyed an Atrius Umber, whom he calls 
a " dux abominandi nominis" 

The superstition was natural enough when we remember 
that originally all names had a meaning suggestive of some 
peculiarity of the bearer, or of some remarkable incident 
connected with his history. Thus the oldest known to us, 
Adam, meant Red, probably indicating that man's sub- 
stance was taken from the red ground ; and Moses, drawn 
from the water. In like manner were all our Saxon names 
once significant, and no doubt they also were frequently 
given to children with an open conviction or a secret 
hope that the meaning of the word might in some mys- 
terious manner influence the future destiny of the infant. 
Alfred is thus all-peace (Germ. Friede) ; Egbert, eye- 
bright ; Bernard, the great bear ; Biddulph, the slayer of 
wolves ; Edward, the guardian of truth, like Gertrude, which 
has the same meaning ; and Bertha, the bright. These 
simple names, however, naturally soon became so common 
to many owners as to fail in conveying individuality, and 
this led to the addition of other designations now known to 
us as surnames. 

The oldest of these with which we are familiar, are 
again those of the Bible, which in their earliest form 
represent invariably true patronymics. We read of Caleb, 
the son of Jephunneh, and of Joshua, the son of Nun. For 
the father's name was soon substituted an ordinary word. 
Thus dying Rachel had called her child Benoni, the son 
of my sorrow, but Jacob gave him the name of Benjamin, 
the son of my strength. The same custom prevailed in 
Greek, where we read of "I/capos rov AatSdkov, and of AcuSa- 
Xos rov EvTrdXfjiov. The custom survives in our Isaac Jacob- 
son or Stephen Fitzherbert. 



116 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Such names were the rule in England before the Con- 
quest, when as yet proper names, in the modern sense of 
the word, were as little known as they were even in the 
last century in Wales. Only about a thousand surnames 
began to be taken up by the most noble families in France 
and in England, when the language was gradually Frenchi- 
fied, about the time of Edward the Confessor. The lower 
nobility did not follow this example before the twelfth, and 
citizens and husbandmen had no names of their families 
before the fourteenth century. It is probable, though not 
absolutely certain, that surnames were at first always writ- 
ten, "not in a direct line after the Christian name, but 
above it, between the lines," as Ducange says, and thus 
were literally " supranomina" or surnames. 

Our English names, most of which have arisen subse- 
quently to the Norman Conquest, have recruits among 
them from almost all races and languages known upon 
earth. The Hebrew itself is largely represented in its 
ancient Ben, which means son. It has given us Benjamin 
and the shorter Benson, Bendigo, and Benari, Bendavid, and 
Benoni. The corresponding word in Syriac, Bar, is of less 
frequent occurrence, and mostly modernized, as in Barron, 
which now stands for Baruch ; and in Bartholomeiv and its 
descendants. This tendency to disguise old testamentary 
names has led to much ludicrous sham-work, both in the 
attempt to conceal and to discover the ancient forms. 
Abraham is shortened into Braham, and Moses into Mose- 
ley or Moss. Solomon becomes, according to fancy and 
taste, Salmon or Sloman ; Levi is transformed into French 
Lewis, and Elias into Ellis. Our French neighbors are as 
skillful as we are in this operation. Few readers of history 
will recognize in the great Republican Manuel, the sweet 
name of Emmanuel, or in the famous banker Mires, the 
simple German-Hebrew Meyers. Valiant Manasseh proves 
its valor on Italian battle-fields as modernized Massena, and 
the vain composer, Herz Adam Levy, adds his initials to 



NAMES OF MEN. 117 

his father's name, and calls himself Halevi. This tendency 
is pleasingly illustrated in the great novelist DTsraeli, who 
loves to convert every great man of our day into a descend- 
ant of the chosen people, as the Irish affirm, with great 
good faith, no doubt, that all the heroes of recent date 
belong to the favored isle. Cavaignac is, in their eyes, but 
bad French for Kavanagh ; Pelissier, of Crimean fame, be- 
longed to the Palissers, and even Garibaldi was originally 
Garry Baldwin. 

Dutch names are but rare in English families, and more 
frequently to be met with in those parts of the United 
States where early Dutch settlers acquired large tracts of 
land, and left numbers of Van Renselaers, Van Schaifo, 
and Van Benthuysens behind them. 

The three most numerous patronymics of Celtic origin, 
now in use among the English and their descendants, are, 
of course, the 0, the Mac, and the Ap, of the three Celtic 
branches settled in the United Kingdom. The Irish 0, or 
Oy, is said by their own writers to have originally meant 
grandson ; it is certain that the old Irish Ui was formerly 
quite frequent, though it must now be considered extinct. 
Mr. Lower, in his charming book on surnames, tells us of 
an old Scotch dame, who boasted that " she had trod the 
world's stage long enough to possess a hundred OyesP It 
cannot be denied, that the unhappy differences between the 
Emerald Isle and the ruling island have frequently led to 
very unjust prejudices against this 0. Thus Pinkerton, 
who argued so vehemently the inferiority of the Celtic race, 
said contemptuously, " Show me a great O and I am done." 
The prejudice, however, is gradually wearing away, as the 
itself is disappearing more and more ; while, on the other 
side, more careful researches lead constantly to the dis- 
covery of facts highly creditable to the ill-treated race. 
The most interesting among them is, perhaps, Mr. Marsh's 
ingenious interpretation of an expression in the Elder Pliny, 
from which it would appear that the Celts had reaping ma- 



118 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

chines, a fact which certainly overthrows the presumed 
inferiority to Roman or Anglo-Saxon civilization. Nor 
ought it to be overlooked, that the (JConnels and O'Con- 
nors have made their mark in English history, and the 
O'Donohue is still ever heard where Erin's wrongs are 
rehearsed. In France their has been slyly incorporated 
into the name, and a son of the O'Dillons has there become 
famous as Odilon Barrot. 

That the itself is gradually becoming rarer, is partly 
due to the voluntary action of many Irishmen, but mainly 
to certain violent acts of the British Government, which 
in Ireland as in Scotland did its best to destroy the nation- 
ality of the subjugated race. The crudest act of all was 
passed by the Irish Parliament in the fifth year of Edward 
IV., and is entitled : " An Act that the Irishmen dwelling 
in the counties of Dublin, Meath, Uriel, and Kildare, shall 
go appareled like Englishmen, wear their beards after the 
English manner, swear allegiance, and take English sur- 
names." Each such Irishman was to " take to him an Eng- 
lish surname of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Skrym 
(sic), Cork, Kinsale ; or color, as White, Black, Brown; or 
art or science, as Smith or Carpenter ; or office, as Cooke, 
or Butler, and that he and his issue shall use the name 
under pain of forfeiting of his goods yearly till the prem- 
ises be done." It was then the McGowans became Smiths, 
and the Mclntyres Carpenters. 

For it need not here be explained that the Irish use fre- 
quently the cognate Mac, so that there was, in former days 
at least, much truth in the well-known lines : 

11 Per Mac atque O tu veros cognoscis Hibernos, 
His duobus demptis nullus Hibernus adest." 

This Mac, now generally looked upon as Scotch, meant 
also, originally, nothing more than son, or male descendant. 
Macaulay and M Calloch have made the prefix renowned 
all over the world, whilst poor McGowan, once famous, 
has sunk into obscure Smithson, to rise once more in 



NAMES OF MEN. 119 

America, through his munificent endowment of the Smith- 
sonian Institute at the seat of government. McPriest, 
McBride, and Mc Queen, look like evidences of a sad dis- 
regard of the vows of celibacy, but fortunately their first 
meaning is rarely present to the mind. Mc Quaker, a name 
of more recent origin, has a spice of the ludicrous. McNabb 
meant, after the same manner, the son of the Abbot, and 
the origin of the name McPherson has been historically 
ascertained. During the reign of David I., king of Scot- 
land, we are told, a younger son of the powerful clan of 
Chattan, became Abbot of Kingussie. The elder brother 
died afterwards childless, and the chieftainship fell to the 
share of the venerable father. He procured the necessary 
dispensation from Rome, and married the fair daughter of 
the Thane of Calder. A swarm of little Kingussies fol- 
lowed, and the good people of Inverness-shire, in their 
quaint, straightforward way, called them McPhersons, the 
sons of the parson. 

This instance stands by no means alone, but similar 
vicissitudes led more than once to the same results. Thus 
we find that the uncommon name of Archbishop arose in a 
like manner. It originated in the person of the well-known 
Frenchman, Hugh de Lusignan, who was an archbishop. 
By the death of one of his brothers he became the heir to 
the family estates and the lordship, and applied to the 
Pope for a license to marry, in order that the noble family 
might not be doomed to become extinguished. The per- 
mission was granted, but coupled with the condition that 
his descendants should bear the surname of Archevesque 
and a mitre over their arms. The family is quite numerous 
in France, and still use the prescribed crest. 

Occasionally the word Mac gives way to the more pre- 
tentious Clan, the Gaelic for offspring or descendants, and 
this furnishes illustrious names like that of Glanricarde. 

The Welsh Ap is the Celtic word Mdb, meaning son. 
Mr. Lower tells us that its earliest form known in names 



120 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

was Vap or ITab, as it is written in the days of Henry VI. 
Under the seventh Henry we find it used thus : (15 Henry 
VII.) " Morgano Philip alias dicto Morgano Vap David Vap 
Philip." Subsequently the first letter being lost it became 
simply Ah or Ap, and was, first in pedigrees, placed between 
the son and the father's name, by which means it gradually 
came to serve as a surname. This survives in modern 
names as in Thomas Ap Thomas. But since the Welsh 
have taken to the use of surnames, after the manner of 
their English neighbors, they generally drop the a and con- 
nect the b or p with the father's name, thus producing reg- 
ular familv names. In this manner : — 
■i 

Ap Evan is now Bevan, Beavin or Bevins. 

Ap Henry " Penry, Perry, Barry or Parry. 

Ap Howel " Powell, though the same name may have been 
derived from Paul, as we find it spelt in Chau- 
cer (7229) thus: "After the text of Christ, and 
Powel and Jon." 

Ap Hugh " Pugh and later Pye, as u in Welsh often has the 
sound of y. 

Ap Lewis " Blewis, Blues. 

Ap Llwd (Lloyd) is now Blewitt, Blood or Floyd. 

Ap Llewllen has early become Fluellen — a name which 
actually existed in Stratford during the lifetime of Shake- 
speare. Ap Owen is Bow en. Ap Richard Prichard, and 
probably also Pickett, unless the latter is derived from the 
French Picote. Ap Roderick is Broderick and Brodie, 
Ap Roger, Prodger, Ap Ross, Prosser, Ap Rhys (Rees) 
Pryce, Brice, and Breese, and Ap Watkin Gwatkin. 

The exaggerated importance which Welshmen are re- 
ported to attach to their patronymics has given rise to many 
an unfair jest at their expense, which the weakness of a 
few of their race would hardly seem to justify. Already 
in the reign of Henry VIII. a judge, to whose question 
how he was called, an ancient worshipful Welshman gravely 
replied : " Thomas Ap William, Ap Thomas, Ap Richard, 
Ap Hoel, Ap Evan," &c, suggested to the irate owner of 
the endless name the propriety of contenting himself with 



NAMES OF MEN. 121 

the name of Mostyn, after his chief residence. A like 
advice might have benefited the happy man who deduced 
the name of Apollo, to his own satisfaction at least, from Ap 
Haul, the son of the Sun. Hence the bitter lines — 

" Cheese, Adonis' own cousin- german by birth 
Ap Curds, ap Milk, ap Cow, ap Grass, ap Earth." 

In the year 1299, we find there was a proud Welshman 
summoned to Parliament, by the name and title of Lord 
Ap Adam, though it is not stated whether he traced his 
descent in an unbroken line. This baron of so ancient a 
family left a son, but neither he nor any of his descendants 
seem ever after to have been summoned again. Later 
descendants, however, have carefully noted every step in 
the pedigree of the Ap Adams, and may yet establish their 
claim to a seat among their post-diluvian brethren. 

There is another a occasionally prefixed to names which 
must be carefully distinguished from its Welsh namesake. 
It occurs much among the humbler classes in Cumberland 
and Westmoreland ; as in William a Bills, John a Toms, 
Billy a Luke, where it seems to stand simply for the Eng- 
lish of, with the father's name. In other cases it appears 
to have been used, after the fashion of the Norman de, for 
the Latin ah, as in John a Gaunt (ab Ghent), and in the 
name of the first grand-master of the Teutonic order, whom 
Fuller calls Henry a Walpole (Holy War. II. ch. 16). We 
are all familiar with Thomas a Becket, Anthony a Wood, 
and Thomas a Kempis, though few may be aware that the 
fictitious name of John a Nokes and Tom a Styles have 
been handed down to us from "Jack Noakes and Tom 
Styles," who formerly served as representatives of the 
profanum vulyus or our more fastidious Tom, Dick, and 
Harry. 

The Normans added to these three patronymics their 
own Fitz, the much abused Jilius, (fits,) of the Romans. 
It is somewhat strange, however, that the use of this word 
is now unknown in France, and does not occur in the 



122 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

ancient chronicles of that country. The name came, we 
believe, more probably from Flanders, and was only sub- 
sequently adopted by the Normans, who were strangely 
proud of names and surnames. Like the old Romans, of 
whom already Horace said, " Gaudent prcenomine moths 
auriculce" (Sat. II. 5-32,) whilst he satirizes one as " Tam- 
quam habens tria nomina" they loved to add name to name, 
so that Fitzhamon's daughter could justly complain, as of 
a great wrong, that the natural son of Henry I., whom he 
gave to her as husband, had but one name. The king 
thereupon bestowed on him the proud name of Fitz-IZoi, 
for, says she in the poetical version of the event, — 

" It were to me great shame 
To have a lord withouten his twa name.'* 

Henry II., to recall his being born in imperial purple, called 
himself Fitz-Empress ; and at one time it was the fashion 
among old Anglo-Saxon families to exchange their ancient 
son for the modern fitz. The Sveynsons thus became Fitz- 
Swains, the Hardy sonnes Fitz- Harding es and the ancient 
Ethelwulfs, the noble descendants of the Wolf, whom they 
called farther south Guelph, became Fitz- Urse. Occasion- 
ally the process was reversed. Thus King Edward I., who 
disliked the name of Fitz, ordered the Lord John Fitz- 
Kobert, whose ancestors had for long generations used each 
his father's Christian name as a surname, to "leave the 
manner and to be called John of Clavering, which was the 
capital seat of his barony." 

Even now the eldest son of the Earl of Malmesbury is 
by courtesy called Viscount Fitz-Harris. It will be seen 
from this, how erroneous the general impression is, that 
Fitz was always a sign of illegitimacy. On the contrary, 
it was probably not before the times of the later Norman 
kings that the name was at all applied to bastards. Since 
that time, however, this custom has been regularly kept up, 
as in the comparatively recent case of the children of the 
Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan, who bear the name of 
Fitz- Clarence. 



NAMES OF MEN. 123 

The very large number of English names which are de- 
rived from saints, have mainly come down to us from the 
Normans, though some, no doubt, are derived more directly 
through the Church. A few have been preserved in their 
purity ; others are sadly mispronounced, as St. Leger and 
St. John. The majority, however, have been so fiercely 
mutilated that but for authentic documents showing the 
gradual change, their present form would scarcely sug- 
gest their original formation : — 



Thus St. Paul is now 


Sampole, Sample, or Semple. 


St. Denis 


u 


Sidney. 


St. Aubin 


u 


Tobyn or Dobbin, a degradation due, like so 
many others, to the desire of certain English 
settlers in Ireland to become thoroughly Hiber- 
nicized. 


St. Clara 


11 


Sinclair or Sinkler. 


St. Leger 


u 


Sillinger. 


St. Pierre 


u 


Sampire, Sampier, and even Yampert ! 


St. Oly 


(( 


Toly. 


St. Ebbe 


it 


Tabby or Tebbs. 



St. Amandus is now Samand. 
St. Edolph " Stydolph. 

St. Barbe " Simbard. 

Most of these changes took place as soon as the loss of 
Normandy cut off English noblemen from their constant 
intercourse with France, a time at which the Saxon ele- 
ment began to get the better of the Norman French, and 
to fashion it to its own laws of euphony. It was then, also, 
that other French names, not derived from saints, under- 
went similar mutilations, when La Morte Mer gave us Mor- 
timer, and Le Mort Lac our Mortldke or Mortlock, when 
Beauchamp began to sound like Beachame, as Troissart 
spelt it by ear in 1400, Belvoir became Beever, Cholmon- 
deley, Chomley, and the French-English word skirmisher, 
from escrime, appeared first as Scrymgeour ! 

Among the early Saxons, the good old rule, " One person 
one name," seems at first to have prevailed, as even before 
their arrival in England, neither the German hero Herr- 
mann nor the Celtic Caractacus had been distinguished by 



124 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

any additional epithet. Very soon, however, surnames came 

into fashion among them also, and were probably first taken 

from some outward peculiarity, as the ancient Mucel, big, 

which has come down to our day as Mitchell Others were 

taken from occupations, and form a class so overwhelmingly 

numerous as to require here no special explanation. It will 

suffice to quote the quaint words of an old writer on the 

subject, which cover the whole ground : " Touching such 

as have their surnames of occupations, as Smith, Taylor, 

Turner, and such others, it is not to be doubted but their 

ancestors have first gotten them by using such trades, and 

the children of such parents being contented to take them 

upon them, their after-coming posterity, can hardly avoid 

them, and so in time cometh it rightly to be said, — 

4 From whence came Smith, all be he knight or squire, 
But from the smith that forgeth at the fire ? ' 

" Neither can it be disgraceful to any that now live in 
very worshipful estate and reputation, that their ancestors 
in former ages have been, by their honest trades of life, 
good and necessary members in the Commonwealth, seeing 
all gentry hath first taken issue from commonalty ." Cer- 
tainly a Chaucer had no cause to blush for his descent from 
a hosier, as Camden calls his ancestor, from its being the 
same as Chausier, the name of the man, who made the 
chausse or hose, which in those days served to clothe both 
the leg and the foot. This tendency toward the addition 
of a surname seems to have been occasionally exaggerated, 
else Lord Coke would not have felt called upon to say, 
" that special heed was to be taken to the name of baptism, 
because a man cannot have two names of baptism, as he 
may have divers surnames." Modern usage is apt to sin in 
the opposite direction. 

Together with these fertile sources of surnames, patrony- 
mics also were employed by the Saxon race to obviate the 
difficulty. It is held by many, that the oldest of this stock 
is kin, a Flemish or Frisic termination, but probably so 



NAMES OF MEN. 125 

closely connected with the pure Saxon kin as to make it 
almost impossible, at this period, to decide to which source 
each name is due. From the occurrence of the same words 
on the continent, we may presume that especially the abbre- 
viated names are of Frisic origin, such as Watkin, Simkin, 
Jenkin, Perkin, and Hodgkin, from Walter, Simon, John, 
Peter, and Roger. 

The most fertile of all is, of course, the good old Anglo- 
Saxon son, and mixed up with it, now inseparably, the 
characteristic letter of the genitive, our s. Thus we have 
obtained from 

Harry : Harrison, Harris, Herries, Hawes, and, with the aid of kin, 

Hawkins ; 
Andrew: Anderson, Andrews, Henderson; 
Michael: Mixon (Mike's son) and Oldmixon; 
Walter : Watson, Watts, Watkins ; 
David: Davidson, Davies, Dawson, Daws; 

Hodge : Hodgson, Hodges, Hutchins, Hutchkinson ; 

W'lliam • I Williamson, Williams, Wilaon, Wills ; 

' I Wilkin, Wilkinson, Wilkes; 

Richard* \ ^ cnaro ^ son « Richards; 

( Dixon (Dick's son), Dickens, Dickenson; 
Adam : Adamson, Adams, Atkin, Atkins, Atkinson ; 

Elias : Ellyson, Ellis, Ellice, Elliot ; 

Anna : Anson ; — Nelly : Nelson ; — Patty : Patterson. 

A similar contraction led to the derivation of Megson 
and Mixon from Meg (Margaret), of Lawson from Law 
(Lawrence), Jackson from Jack (James), Watson from Wat 
(Walter), Greg son from Gregg (Gregory), Gibson from 
Gibb (Gilbert), and Samson from Sam (Samuel). Philip, 
which in a similar manner appear as Phillips, has been 
contracted into Phipps, a name of aristocratic import in 
spite of its extreme brevity ; whilst in another direction it 
has expanded into Philipot, and thus furnishes the name of 
the well-known Bishop, Dr. Philpotts. 

Occasionally, however, the termination son is rather due 
to Danish and Norse influence, numerous names of this 
kind being distinctly traceable to Northern men, as Swain- 
son (Sveyn-sen), Ericson and Andersen. It must, also, be 



126 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

borne in mind, that the final s frequently does not repre- 
sent the genitive of the father's name, but the plural of 
some outward peculiarity, from which the name is derived. 
Bones thus belongs not inappropriately to a medical practi- 
tioner of some fame, and Shanks seems to have the power of 
attracting public attention in an uncommon degree, if we 
may judge from the number of Shanks, Longshanks, Cruik- 
shanks, and Sheepshanks we meet with in history and in ac- 
tual life. Common people, it is well known, have a strange 
partiality for this plural form in s, adding it even to the verb 
in the vulgar " says I." To this tendency we are probably in- 
debted for names like Flowers, Grapes, Crosskeys, Briggs 
or Bridges, Banks, Boys, Brothers, Cousins, and Children. 

A different process has led in Italian to the designation 
of whole families from some peculiarity of appearance or 
some profession, as in the case of the Medici, who had long 
ceased to be physicians, when they were still so called after 
an ancestor of fame, and of the charming Bello or Rosso, 
who left behind them families of Rossi and Belli, and little 
Rossini and Bellini. 

The old Saxon derivation ing has left us unfortunately 
but a small variety of proper names in daily use, such as 
Manning and Dunning ; still it is said that there are up- 
wards of two thousand names which contain this pure 
Anglo-Saxon patronymic. Sometimes it becomes the ter- 
mination of a local name, but generally it is placed before 
the part which signifies dwelling, as in Kensington and 
Islington. In Harlington, for instance, it means the town or 
the settlement of the Harlings, the descendants of an an- 
cient Harl or Jarl (Earl), and it has already been mentioned 
that the Billings, one of the royal races, have in all prob- 
ability left their name attached to Billingsgate. 

The expressive kin is much more largely represented. 
Derived from the ancient cyn, it meant originally race, and 
hence gave us cyning, now king, the descendants of the 
race by eminenee, as the sons of the French king were 



NAMES OF MEN. 127 

with like exclusiveness long known as Jlls de France, the 
children of France. Thence came also cyned, now kind, com- 
prising all who belong to the same race or class. This is the 
true meaning to be given to the biblical expression of " trees 
bearing each after its own kind ; " and to Hamlet's words, 
" a little more than kin and less than kind." In its second- 
ary meaning we find the suggestion, that what is of the 
same race and blood must needs feel affectionately one to 
another, and thus kindness became equivalent to benevo- 
lence, brotherly love, &c. Added to the father's name, it 
has, from the earliest times, served to designate the de- 
scendants, and thus we have obtained Wilkin, Tomkin, Per- 
kin (Peterkin), and their derivatives Wilkins, Wilkinson, &c. 

Of equal antiquity, but of much rarer occurrence, are the 
names obtained by means of the Saxon termination, ock, as 
in Pollock, from Paul, and contracted into Polk, which is 
often connected with the first name by an inserted c, as in 
Wilcox (Will-c-ock's) and Philcox. 

It speaks well for the religious sense of the people, that 
names derived from the Creator are so much less frequent 
in English than in other languages. Nothing exists among us 
like the French Dieu, which occurs in the history of France 
from the oldest times down to the Crimean war, or the Ger- 
man Herrgott (Lord God), the name of a well-known author. 
Spain and Italy abound, besides, in Jesus, Gesu, and Gesu 
Maria. Our Goddard, Godfrey, and Godwin have all come 
to us from Germany, and hardly convey, in their present 
form, any suggestion of irreverence. It is questionable if 
our Old English Bigod has any thing to do with the habit 
of the first owner to take the name of the Lord in vain, 
although it is well established that the Normans obtained 
this name from the French on account of the frequency of 
their oaths, as the English are still occasionally called God- 
dams, or Jean Gottam, for a similar reason. The true 
origin of the name is probably identical with that of bigot. 

We make more free with the names of Pagan gods, and 



128 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

borrow especially largely from Scandinavian mythology. 
Wodan gives us thus not only our Wednesdays, but also 
Wodnesbeorg, now called Wanborough and Wansborough as 
a surname. Thor, from which we have Thursday, occurs 
quite frequently, as Thoresby, Thursby, and Thurlow. The 
ancient goddess Freia, to whom we owe Friday, reappears 
fully in Fridaythorpe, and in the surname Frewin it is found 
analogous to Godwin. The god Saster, preserved in Sat- 
urday, has given his name in like manner to several local- 
ities, and to Satterthwaite. 

It is not our purpose here to enter into a full explanation 
of the host of English surnames. The work has been ad- 
mirably done by men of great learning and research, and 
yet, as a matter of course, but a small proportion of the 
thirty or forty thousand surnames in our language have 
been fully explained. They are derived from almost every 
possible condition of personal qualities, natural objects, oc- 
cupations and pursuits, localities, and from mere caprice 
and fancy. We will here only allude to a few peculiarities 
connected with certain classes of names, which deserve fuller 
investigation. 

The Norman-French brought with them a large number 
of names which were either derived from places on the 
continent, and marked as such by having a de prefixed, as 
De Quincey and De Vere ; or, not being local, they were 
characterized by Le, as Le Marshall, Le Latimer, Le Bas- 
tard, Le Strange, Le Vert, and Le Fevre, the most aristo- 
cratic form of the universal Smith which we possess. A 
large number of both of these classes have lost, in the 
course of being Anglicized, both in form and meaning so 
much that it is not always easy to retrace them now to 
their first origin. Thus, 

Le Dispensier, subsequently known as Le Spencer, was 
originally the " dispensator " or steward to the household. 
The officer, who accompanied the Conqueror became of 
course a great baron in England, and at the same time the 



NAMES OF MEN. 129 

father of the illustrious house of Spenser, now represented 
by the Duke of Marlborough. 

Le Gros Veneur, anciently the great huntsman to the 
Dukes of Normandy, founded in like manner the house of 
Grosvenor. 

Le Naper, now known as Napier, was the officer who 
took charge of the Duke's " napery," his table-linen, &c. 
This derivation of the noble house of Napier, is certainly 
less romantic than that which ascribes it to the grateful 
monarch's eulogy of " No Peer," but, on the other hand, 
far more authentic. He was the officer who had charge of 
the Duke's table-linen, and especially of the " nappe " used 
in washing hands before and after meals, which it was his 
especial privilege to present to his Lord. Another part of 
his duty in the royal household was to hand over to the 
king's almoner the old linen of the king's table for distri- 
bution among the poor. 

De la Chambre, the first Chamberlain known to England 
by that name, soon dwindled into Chambers in England, 
and the corresponding Chalmers in Scotland. 

Summoner became curt Sumner ; the Falconer, simple 
Faulkner ; and other French names were treated still worse. 
The heroic Taillefer, who marched before the Conqueror's 
host, singing ancient war-songs, survives now only as Telfair 
with us, whilst in Italy his name has been softened into 
Tagliaferro, which they pronounce in the Southern States 
as if it were written Toliver. The fair De Champ is now 
ill-sounding Shands ; Belle Chere, taken from what Chau- 
cer means when he says, — 

" For cosynage and eke for bele cheer," (4820) 
is now unpleasantly suggestive as Belcher. Molyneux, in 
humble life, is written, as well as pronounced, Mullnicks ; 
and saintly Theobald, as Tipple ! 

Many Norman names, taken from the bearer's native 
land or town, have suffered in a way to make us tremble 
for the future fate of many of our own names. The Paga- 
9 



130 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

nus became first a Painim, and then, shorter still, Payne ; 
the Genoese is now a Janeway, and the man from Hog- 
stepe calls himself Huckstep, or even Buck. In like man- 
ner the man from Bretagne became a Bret or De Brett, 
Debrett ; he from Bourgoyne, a Burgogne or Burgwin ; from 
Gascoyne, a Gascogne or Gaskin ; from Hainault, a Bane- 
way ; from Lorraine a Loring, and from the East gen- 
erally, a Sterling, through Easterling. But the worst fate 
befell three unlucky wights, who came over from three little 
towns in Normandy. One was called de Ath, and is now 
Death; another, de Ville, and became briefly Devil; and a 
third, from Scardeville, branched off into two lines of de- 
scendants, peaceful Scarfields, and terrible Scaredevils. 

This process of changing foreign names is actively going 
on in our midst, thanks to the variety of European elements 
which flow into the great mass of our people. Occasion- 
ally, the change can be clearly traced, as in local names. 
Thus we find the river de la feve, as the French settlers 
called the tributary of the Mississippi, which passes by Ga- 
lena, soon changed into the more familiar name of Fever 
River. The same takes place among our Canadian neigh- 
bors, where a French population is slowly giving way to 
English settlers, and the old French names undergo strange 
alterations. Thus, a place on the Ottawa, formerly called 
Les Gheneaux, or The Channels, has become in pronuncia- 
tion The Snows, and the spelling will probably soon follow 
the sound. Another settlement, which for some reason or 
other was called Les Ghats, is rapidly changing into The 
Shaws ; and a third, Les Joaquins, is altogether transformed 
into The Swashings. A hill near the Bay of Fundy, once 
poetically designated by the Acadians as Chapeau de Dieu 
(God's hat), is now called Shepody Mountain ! Nor are 
these changes confined to French names under English 
rule only, but foreign words of any kind, when used by 
ignorant men, have suffered in like manner. Thus the 
Indian name of a river in New Brunswick, Pekantediac 



NAMES OF MEN. 131 

(river in white birch land), is there popularly known as 
Tom Kedgewiclc, and numerous instances of like transfor- 
mations are found in every section of the United States. 

By the side of such unmerciful treatment, the most vio- 
lent contractions in sound appear but trifling injuries done 
to a name. The noble owners of Cholmondeley, Marjori- 
banks, and Tollemache may, after that, well bear their 
curtailment into Chumley, Marchbanks, and Talmash ; and 
even the descendant of the Danish monarch's cup-bearer, 
originally known as Schenhe, and so called by Shakespeare 
and Dryden, might be reconciled to his modern appellation 
of Skinker. 

Families, moreover, were not the only sufferers by such 
violence. The names of towns and places, of public and 
private houses, even though of good English origin, were 
in like manner ill-treated and changed beyond all power 
of recognition. It might be pardonable, from the truth- 
fulness of the description, to change St. Dacre into Sandy 
Acre, a parish in Derbyshire ; and the Chartreuse, & former 
Carthusian monastery of great renown, suppressed during 
the Reformation, into Charter-House. There is no harm 
in turning Boulogne Mouth, Ihe sign of a tavern much fre- 
quented by sailors from that locality, into Bull and Mouth ; 
or La Belle Sauvage, the name of another inn, the lease 
of which had been granted to Mrs. Isabella Savage, into 
Bell and Savage, although the pictorial illustrations which 
accompany the names are enigmatic enough to puzzle the 
most cunning antiquarian. The frequenters of the ale- 
house of the Cat and Wheel, will be little disposed to quar- 
rel with the owner because he substituted those simple 
words for the more pretentious Catharine on the Wheel, of 
his predecessor ; and the Bag of Nails of a well-known 
public-house in Pimlico is deservedly more popular now 
than it was under its classic name of Bachanalia. But we 
think we have a right to complain when St. Mary on the 
Bourne, i. e., on the river, is travestied into Marylebone, 



132 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

as Old Bourne was into Holborne ; and when the memory 
of the gentle nuns of St. Helena, whom our forefathers 
revered as Mincheons, is drowned in the change from 
Mincheons' Lane, which passed their ancient house, into 
Mincing Lane. Few of us would recognize in the sign of 
George and Cannon, a tribute to the fame of George Can- 
ning ; in the Plum and Feather, the Prince of Wales's Plume 
of Feathers ; in the Bull and Gate, the Boulogne Gate, a 
trophy taken by Henry VII. ; and still less is it suspected 
by many admirers of that ancient play, Punch and Judy, 
that the names represent nothing less than Pontius cum 
Judceis, a relic of an ancient Mystery taken from St. Mat- 
thew xxvii. v. 19. 

The derivation of the oft-quoted sign of the Goat and 
Compasses, from the supposed Puritan inscription, " God 
encompasseth us," has fortunately given way to a more 
simple and more correct explanation. It has been ascer- 
tained that a company of wine-coopers in Cologne bore in 
its arms a pair of compasses in allusion to their craft, and 
two goats as supporters. Now it is but fair to suppose that 
these arms were branded on casks containing Rhenish wine, 
as is the custom to this day, and that they were, very natu- 
rally, transferred thence to the sign-board of an inn or a 
vintner's house. 

Compound surnames are plentiful, and often ludicrous 
enough, when looked upon apart from the time and the 
circumstances which first suggested their formation. Mas- 
singer ought ever to be a Catholic, to sing masses, and 
Shakelady would hardly be admitted into good society, if he 
should presume to make his name good. How Doolittles 
get along in life is a mystery ; a greater one yet the pa- 
tience with which men submit, generation after generation, 
to be called Gotobed, Popkiss, or Stabbach Total abstinence 
seems to have been in vogue from of old, if we may judge 
from the fondness of all nations for the name of Drink- 
water, which has given us Bevilacquas in Italy, and Boileaus 



NAMES OF MEN. 133 

in France. Sir Thomas Leatherbreeches had weight enough 
to carry his uncomfortable name into the best company, 
and whilst Wins-pear has become a great name in Naples, 
Shakespeare is immortal. Our Puritan fathers, it is well 
known, indulged in a sad fancy for Scriptural names, which 
became unpardonable when extended to whole phrases. 
On Hume's roll of a Sussex jury, we find, among others, 
Mr. " Fight-the-good-Jight-of-Faith White" of Ewen, and 
Mr. "Kill Sin Pimple" of Witham. The most unfortu- 
nate of all was, perhaps, the brother of the famous dealer 
in leather who presided over the Rump-Parliament. His 
pious parents had had him christened as " If- God-had-not- 
died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned ; " and, as no mortal 
man could utter the whole each time that he spoke of or 
to the good man, he was universally known as " Damned 
Barebones." 

Such vagaries, however, are by no means of recent ori- 
gin. The great dialectician, Diodorus, in order to show 
that language was the result of an arbitrary choice of words, 
and not a living organism, pointed in triumph to his slaves, 
to whom he had given new names, calling one "Os, and 
another 'AXXa/xT/r, in order to prove that any word might 
be made significative at will. There was, of course, as lit- 
tle connection here between such names and the owners, as 
there is between the poor slave and his name, chosen by ca- 
price from those of free and famous Romans. A German 
author of considerable fame, imposed, in similar manner, 
his pseudonym of Posgaru for many years on the world, 
which admired his works and believed in his name. He 
was enjoying much reputation, even in England, as the suc- 
cessful translator of Manfred, before it was discovered that 
he had hidden himself behind the question " IIgjs yap ov ? " 

Double names are not frequent among us. They occur 
mostly when Norman names have been Anglicized ; we 
have thus d? Anton and Danton ; d'Aubry and Dobree ; 
tfAubeny and Daubeny. Other foreign names have been 



134 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

translated and modified. The French Le Blond reappears 
as English Fairfax, and mutilated Blount and Bland. The 
German Schwarz is now Black, and now Swart or Swarts ; 
Klein is Little or Small or Kline. A curious class of dou- 
ble names belong to families who bear them on the pretext 
of an alias. Documents abound in which the same name 
occurs not once, which might have been accident, but con- 
tinually accompanied by its shadow. Thus, under the date 
of 1535 already we meet with a " Eicardus Jackson, alias 
Kenerden." In Scotland the custom prevailed for some 
time to use the Gaelic name with the English transla- 
tion superadded. Men called themselves McTavish alias 
Thomson, McCalmon alias Dorr, or Gow alias Smith. 
Hence, probably, arose the eccentric, and otherwise inex- 
plicable custom of some families to write themselves by 
one name and to call themselves by another, as with the En- 
roughty 's, who are called Derby. The alias was gradually 
omitted, and the two names remained to be used for two 
distinct purposes. 

As the oldest coats of arms in the nobility of almost all 
countries are the simplest, consisting generally but of a 
single device, sq the oldest names, also, may be presumed 
to have been extremely simple. " Nomen dim apud omnes 
fere gentes simplex" says an excellent authority on the sub- 
ject. Notwithstanding this prestige, however, there seems 
to have prevailed, from olden times, a dislike to very short 
and simple names. Lucian tells us of a man called Simon, 
who, " having now gotten a little wealth, changed his name 
into Simonides, for that there were so many beggars of his 
kin, and set his house on fire, in which he was born, so that 
nobody could point at it." A slave, Pyrrhius or Dromo, 
on succeeding to a rich inheritance, changed his name to 
Megacles, just as Diodes, upon becoming Emperor, felt 
called upon to lengthen his to Dioclesian. Early French 
history tells us of Bruna, who became Queen of France, 
when it was thought proper to convey something of regal 



NAMES OF MEN. 135 

pomp in her name, and so she was called Brunehault. A 
somewhat similar reason induces the popes to change their 
name as soon as the fisherman's ring is placed upon their 
forefinger, a custom they have observed ever since the 
name of one of their number, Sergius, which meant Hog's 
Mouth or Groin, made it necessary for decency's sake. 

Louis XL had an even better reason for changing the 
name of his favorite, Olivier le Diable, which he first 
altered to Olivier le Mauvais, and when that also suggested 
the truth still too forcibly, to Olivier le Daim, forbidding at 
the same time the former names ever to be mentioned ! It 
is quite a comfort to compare with this the change of a 
man as great and virtuous as Olivier was mean and wicked. 
Maria Theresa had an excellent minister, who suffered 
under the misfortune of an ill-omened name, Thunichtgut, 
Do-no-good ; the great Empress, in acknowledgment of his 
virtues and his signal services, ordered it to be changed 
into Thugut, our Dogood. 

In England also the change is not rare, though a happy 
excuse was made for short names by worthy John Cuts, an 
opulent citizen of London, to whose house and care the 
Spanish ambassador had been assigned. The proud Span- 
iard complained officially of the " shortness of name " of 
his host, which he thought disparaging to his honor. 
"But," says Fuller, "when he found that his hospitality 
had nothing monosyllabic in it, he groaned only at the 
utterance of the name of his host." 

An entire change of name was not unknown to our fore- 
fathers. Even Camden tells us that this was quite fre- 
quently done in his time " to modify the ridiculous, lest the 
bearer should be vilified by them." This wish to get rid 
of a vulgar or ill-sounding name created, at an early 
period, the habit of giving Latin and Greek forms, which 
meet us so frequently in history. The great theologian 
Schwarzerd, Luther's friend, became thus familiarly known 
to us as Melancthon (Black Earth) ; and the great Neander 



136 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

of our day was, before he became a convert to Christianity, 
known as the Jew Neumann, just as a former Hosemann 
(man of hose) called himself Osiander. The English 
physician Key, in like manner, Latinized his name into 
Caius, suggestive of some relationship to the great Roman 
jurist, and perpetuated it handsomely in the College of 
Gonville and Caius of Cambridge, although everybody 
now calls it, regardless of the founder's pardonable vanity, 
simply Key's College. The same period gave birth to the 
two names of Caius and Magnus, both still famous in 
England and Germany. 

It is less easy to account for the wish of Lord Byron to 
be called, not by his English name, but by that of the 
French family of Biron, than to appreciate the reasons 
which induced Napoleon, at the very beginning of his mar- 
velous career, to denationalize his Italian name of Buona- 
parte, and to make it French as Bonaparte. We can under- 
stand, also, why the O'Briens of Ireland should be willing, 
in our day, to exchange their name for that of Stafford, 
since the famous conspiracy in the cabbage-garden has 
given an unenviable notoriety to the former. We all know 
why our friend Smith writes himself Smythe or Smeeth, or 
even Smijthe, and when driven to the wall has been 
known to change it into Furnace. This recalls to us 
Swift's sneer : " I know a citizen who adds or changes a 
letter in his name with every plum he acquires ; he now 
wants only a change of a vowel to be allied to a sovereign 
prince (Farnese) in Italy." 

The Taylors, in the same way, are apt to become Tay- 
leurs, of whom Mr. Lower tells the following good story : 
A Mr. Tayleur, who had been thus modified, asked a 
farmer somewhat haughtily the name of his dog. The 
answer was, " Why, sir, his proper name is Jowler ; but 
since he 's a consequential kind of a puppy we calls him 
Jowleure." If Plato was right in recommending parents 
to give happy names to their children, because the minds, 



NAMES OF MEN. 137 

actions, and successes of men depended not on their genius 
and fate only, but also on their names, then we can cer- 
tainly not blame those who desire to rid themselves of an 
ill-omened name. They may remember what befell the 
unlucky princess of Spain, whose name cost her a throne. 
For when the good King Philip of France had determined 
to seat a queen by his side, he sent ambassadors to his 
neighbor the King of Spain, and gave them license to 
choose one of his two daughters for their sovereign. They 
were struck with the beauty of the elder sister, and 
decided among themselves that both on account of her age 
and her charms she would be a fit bride for their master. 
But of a sudden their opinion w T as changed. They had 
been informed that the beauty was called Uracca, whilst 
her younger and less attractive sister's name was Blanca. 
That name of Uracca destroyed all other charms ; they 
gave up their own preference and led the younger princess 
back with them to rule over France. History has more 
than one such answer to the oft-quoted " What 's in a 
name ? " Perhaps parents would be more guarded in 
naming their children if they thought how much more 
pleasing Mary, Anna, and Lucy sound, even to the unedu- 
cated ear, than barbarous Barbara, the little bear Ursula, 
or the heathen Apollonia, to say nothing of American 
eccentricities. It is not too much to say that men might 
possibly even guard their names more jealously from every 
stain and bad repute if they gave more attention to their 
meaning and their history. But as we have, unfortunately, 
little to say when our names are given us, we ought at 
least be permitted to change them when they are too atro- 
cious and prove intolerable burdens. First names can 
generally be hidden under mysterious initials, but the 
family name asserts its rights, and may prejudice all the 
world against the unfortunate owner. 

We cannot help sympathizing, therefore, with poor Mr. 
Death of Massachusetts, who petitioned the legislative body 



138 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

of his State to change his name to Dickinson, and we do 
so all the more because malicious Fate would have it that 
the member who presented his petition was a Mr. Graves. 
A Mr. Wormwood supported his more ambitious desire to 
assume the name of Washington by the argument that 
" no member of taste would oppose his request/' and that 
"the intense sufferings of so many years of wormwood 
existence deserved the compensation of a great and glo- 
rious name." 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 
M Non enim ut fungi nascuntur yocabula." — Hire. 

Words share the dualism that seems to pertain not to 
human nature alone, but to pervade the whole creation. 
As man consists of a heaven-born mind and a body, of the 
earth, earthy, so words also have their immortal part, an 
idea, and their perishing, changeable body, the outward 
form and its sound. The ever-active mind of man creates 
incessantly new ideas, and the frail and subtle material in 
which they are clothed and of which the body of all words 
consist, the air we breathe, suffers a thousand varying influ- 
ences from outside. Thus words have a physical history 
which explains the growth of their form, as well as a men- 
tal history belonging to the idea they represent. Both go, 
of course, hand in hand, though but too often the clumsy, 
awkward body remains far behind the subtle idea, and is 
not unfrequently left in the end an empty shell, a mere sign 
and symbol. Of no class of words is this more true than 
of the names of objects, as they are necessarily the oldest, 
and, with the verb, the only essential part of speech ; these 
two, noun and verb, sufficing to constitute language. To 
name an object, by a noun, and to affirm something con- 
cerning that object, by a verb, is all that is needed to convey 
thought from one mind to another. The other parts of 
speech are mere luxuries and asses' bridges ; they grow in 
number and importance, as articles of luxury grow with 
prospering nations ; but when passion drives our thoughts 



140 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

at a tempest's pace, or terror chills our tongue, the master- 
words alone appear and are found amply sufficient. 

Fortunately we have in English the rare opportunity of 
tracing nouns from infancy to full manhood ; we can follow 
the varying fate of some with unfailing certainty and in 
unbroken line, from the cradle to the grave. Our language 
is just pliant enough now to form new nouns as the ne- 
cessity arises, and to allow us to watch their success in life. 
Some come upon the stage with a dash and an air of 
triumph which soon gives way to utter discomfiture, and 
they are seen no more ; others creep in stealthily ; they 
have no famous poet or brilliant essayist for their godfather, 
but they do their duty so well, and are such useful hewers 
of wood and drawers of water that, before we are well 
aware of it, they are admitted to every house, and finally 
hold their own among the oldest and proudest of words. 

If we go back, for the purpose of thus tracing the his- 
tory of nouns to the oldest forms of English, we will there 
find the method of forming them from the first and sim- 
plest elements. A single vowel, «, served in primitive times 
to convey the idea of eternity ; it has since grown up with 
our people, it has spread out and is now known as aye (for 
ever and aye), still bearing its striking resemblance to the 
Greek det. Two vowels joined show already some progress, 
as in the ancient word ce for law ; then a consonant was 
added to a vowel, and we have ac, our modern oak, but 
still surviving in many a name, as in Acland and Acton, 
the town and the land of oaks. 

It is not to be presumed that these most simple words 
should have long existed alone, or even been allowed to 
retain their primitive forms. Some were lengthened out ; 
in other cases, from rapidity of utterance, convenience or 
inattention, two were run together so as to form one word. 
The latter process is still continually going on. When we 
first hear a foreign language spoken, the most striking im- 
pression is that it seems to be all one word, and nothing is 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 141 

more difficult for the ear than to learn how to divide the 
continued sound correctly into words and syllables. Even 
in English, certain words now written in one were carefully 
separated as late as the days of Byron, and others are now 
in the very act of being contracted. We derive from this 
experience the simple law that every English noun consist- 
ing of more than one syllable has no longer its first form, 
but has had other words or particles added to the original 
root of one syllable. 

We may follow, in like manner, the mental process by 
which nouns were formed, in our vernacular. The first use 
of language was always and everywhere to give names to 
material, sensible objects, as the five senses are after all the 
one great inlet of human knowledge. " Nihil in oratione 
quod non prius in sensu" is a dogma of practical truth. 
Adam proceeds in this manner in the Bible narration, and 
every newborn infant does it afresh. Gradually, however, 
the mind becomes more active in itself and more deeply 
interested in the nature of these tangible objects, first ob- 
serves qualities, color, size, life, &c, in them, then thinks of 
them abstractly, aside from the object which first suggested 
them, and finally gives them names. Last of all come 
abstract nouns, the names of ideas, which have neither a 
substance of their own nor any connection with the tangi- 
ble world. Rude, barbarous races are almost altogether 
without this class of nouns ; speculative nations admit them 
in burdensome numbers. 

This process of forming nouns is by no means exhausted 
in the modern form of languages ; in none perhaps is it 
completely ended. We judge so not from abstract reason- 
ing but from the very evident fact that the three classes we 
have mentioned are, even in English, not yet absolutely 
defined and separated from each other. Many nouns have 
yet, with us also, to answer for an abstract idea, and at the 
same time for its special representative. Youth is a time 
of life, and a young man ; acauaintance is a state and a 



142 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

person ; witness means as much the evidence given as the 
person from whom it is elicited. Every now and then we 
can trace the gradual transition, as in the word fairy, which 
was formerly used only like its parent J "eerie, whilst now it 
is also employed for what of old was called afay, a middle- 
being of Gothic mythology, as in 

" Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays and talismans 
And spirits." 

The stock of English nouns in use at present compre- 
hends every class and kind of words, from the simplest to 
the doubly compound, from the original form to one which 
has not a single letter left. One of the most striking pe- 
culiarities of our language in this respect is, that it can use 
any word, any part of speech, as a noun. Large numbers 
of verbs like hate, love, fear, turn, draw, &c, are, without 
any change, used as nouns also. University men have made 
us familiar with " the little go," and modern authors, espe- 
cially in this country, have multiplied the number of sub- 
stantives drawn from verbs with almost appalling license. 
Thus we read of a hard freeze, a fine swim, a long run, a 
good haul, a long pull, a big scare, a bold dash, a long talk, 
a regular flare-up, a ride, a stroll, and a saunter, and even 
of a soapy feel in Mineralogy. 

The wealthy of the land show us " a splendid turn-out" 
whether it be a Brougham, a Clarence, or a swift Han- 
som. We speak familiarly of Philippics, as if we had a 
Demosthenes to thunder against Philip of Macedon, of 
simony, bequeathed to us by Simon Magus, of dunces, the 
unworthy representatives of worthy Duns Scotus, of an 
orrery, so called after their first patron, the Earl of Orrery 
and Cork, of rhodomontades after the famous hero of 
Ariosto, of Spensers, Mackintoshes, and d ' Oyleys, showing us 
that proper names furnish an abundance of common nouns, 
to which they have been godfathers. 

This is especially the case with the names of foreign 
countries and cities, which have added largely to the class 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 143 

of nouns used to designate materials or manufactured arti- 
cles. Thus the towns of Calicut (Calcutta) and Damascus 
have given us Calico and Damask ; from Moussul in Asia 
Minor we have Muslin in its various forms of spelling, and 
from Gaza, probably Gauze. Dimity does not come, as is 
generally stated, from Damiette, but from a Greek word, 
which originally meant "two threads." For Du Cange 
quotes an ancient writer on the affairs of Sicily, who men- 
tions a factory in the island which produced " Amita, Dim- 
ita, and Trimita," as also " Exhimita," made thick by an 
abundance of thread, and thus explains to us the different 
stuffs made up respectively of one, two, three, and many 
threads. While chintz finds its origin in the Hindustanee 
word cheent or cheet, which means a spotted stuff, cambric 
comes from the town of Cambray, diaper from d'Ypres, and 
arras from the city of that name. Cordova in Spain has 
given us our cordwainers, Armenia our ermine, Cyprus our 
copper, China our porcelain of that name, and Creta our 
crayon. Indigo is so called as an Indian dye through Indi- 
cus, as the cherry came from Cerasus, and the peach from 
Persicum (malum). Pergamum in Asia gave us, indirectly, 
the word parchment', and Phasis the name of the Phasian 
bird, a pheasant. To Morocco we owe the best leather, to 
Lazarus, through the Italian, our but half-naturalized laza- 
retto, to Livorno the Anglicized Leghorn hats, and to the 
Croats of the seventeenth century, through the French, our 
cravats. Baldaquin comes to us through a series of changes 
from the city of Bagdad, known to the Italians at one time 
as Baldacca, and in the adjective form Baldacchino, be- 
cause canopies were generally made of a costly stuff, manu- 
factured in that Eastern city, and known even in England 
as Baldach. Varnish is traced back either to the golden 
hair of Berenice, or to the city of that name, where a pecu- 
liarly beautiful, amber-colored nitre was found. Worsted is 
derived from no foreign country, but from the English 
town of Worstead, where woolen goods were largely manu- 



144 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

factured. Weapons, also, take their names from places 
famous for producing the first or the best of their kind, as 
Damascus and Toledo blades, bayonets from Bayonne, and 
pistols from Pistoja. Velvet traces its origin to the Italian 
word velluto, descriptive of the peculiar nature of its sur- 
face, and satin from the Latin seta, which subsequently 
formed setinus. The word dollar has an obscure beginning 
in the mines of the little town of Joachimsthal (Valley of 
St. Joachim), in the heart of Germany, as the productive 
silver mines of that region led to the coining of a large 
silver coin, which from the place was called the Joachims- 
thaler. The uncouth word was speedily reduced, in Ger- 
man, to Thaler, which is now the name of the coin through- 
out Germany, and then Anglicized into dollar. 

With greater license still the English takes up words of 
any kind and class, and transforms them, at will, into nouns. 
Thus Shakespeare, using his language with masterly indif- 
ference, says in King Lear : — 

" Thou losest here, a better where to find," 

and elsewhere 

" Henceforth my wooing shall be expressed 
In russet yeas and honest kersey noes." 

There is, however, some limit in this apparently un- 
checked freedom, for good taste and established usage 
become in language as arbitrary tyrants as fashion in 
society. Adjectives, for instance, cannot be promiscuously 
raised to the dignity of nouns. We speak of the black, 
the white, and the native, but only with regard to man ; 
" the grey I own " can only be said of a horse, and the main 
means only the ocean. 

Others again are limited to a plural meaning, no other 
reason being perceptible than the dictates of usage. The 
good and the bad, the rich and the poor, the wise and the 
learned, the quick and the dead, all are singular forms 
applied only to numbers of men. In the ancients and 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 145 

the moderns, the nobles and the commons, the form goes with 
the meaning. The last is used already by Shakespeare 
when he says, — 

" Let but the Commons hear this testament," 

where he means, of course, the commonalty, the common 
people and not the House of Commons. In a still more 
whimsical manner we find some adjectives, when used as 
nouns, invariably accompanied by the possessive pronouns ; 
thus we only speak of my or his superior and inferior, 
junior, senior, and equal. Better also is most frequently 
thus escorted, although not, as is commonly imagined, lim- 
ited to a plural meaning, for we read in Shakespeare : — 

" The Cardinal is not my better in the field; " 
and 

" His letter does not breathe upon the earth ; " 

as well as 

" If our betters play at that game." — Timon, I. 2. 

Some again do not venture forth, as nouns, without the pro- 
tection of an additional one, as when we mention our little 
ones and our dear ones. Still more strictly limited is the 
meaning of a numerous class, each of which is but applied 
to a special subdivision ; such are greens, sweets, bitters, 
eatables and drinkables, movables, odds, &c. Ben Jonson 
already says — 

*' Contraries are not mixed." (741.) 

And in the " Spectator " we find — 

"Not to confine itself to the usual objects of eatables and drinkables,'' 1 

If we regard, on the other hand, the different stages of 
development in which we find our present nouns, it ap- 
pears at a glance that they still represent the three stages 
through which all nouns have to pass. There are our sim- 
ple nouns, consisting of nothing but a simple root, as man. 
day, or house. Then we have derivatives, which boast of 
a root adorned by a little syllable added before or after, as 
10 



146 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

in become and winter. We have, lastly, compound nouns, 
in which two distinct roots have combined to form one 
word, as the two ideas they respectively represent have 
coalesced into one. Such are housewife, wristband, &c. 
Simple nouns, which have really no element but a single 
radical, are comparatively few in number. There are many 
nouns, however, which appear very innocent of any con- 
nection with particles, and which still, when examined more 
closely, have to acknowledge their borrowed feathers. For 
of all languages the English has allowed its derivative 
nouns to be most obscured and contracted, thanks to the 
general tendency of our language to shorten and curtail all 
apparent superfluities. Words like sail, fair, soul, main, and 
stair, seem to be quite simple until we compare them with 
their ancient forms, which generally still survive in modern 
German, and then find them to consist truly of two sylla- 
bles, viz : saegel, faeger, savol, magen, and staeger. Very 
rarely the full and the contracted form continue in use, side 
by side, as in our havoc and hawk, if they really are the 
same word. 

The most fertile of derivative syllables, which thus serve 
to make new nouns, is probably er, the remnant of the 
Anglo-Saxon noun wer, a man, and thence conveying the 
idea of male sex and male agency in addition to that ex- 
pressed by the root. The word seems to have belonged 
alike to almost all languages ; the Sanscrit virah reappears 
in the Armorican air as well as in the Celtic fear. Ver is 
universal throughout the North, and, as Rask tells us, found 
in Runic inscriptions and the oldest writings. The syllable 
er, therefore, occurs in all Northern European languages 
now, and so great and so evident is its convenience, that it 
holds its ground in our own idiom in spite of the strong 
tendency of the latter to rid itself of all grammatical char- 
acteristics. The very fact that it existed in all the idioms, 
Celtic, Saxon, and French, from which the English has 
drawn, has enabled it to adapt itself to so many different 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 147 

classes of words. It must not be overlooked, however, 
that on account of this very circumstance it has not always 
preserved its pure form, but yielded often to the influence 
of the foreign element, with which it has been combined. 
In Scotland we meet occasionally with the full form of the 
originally wer, as in lawwer. Then the w softened into y 
and we read already in the " Chevy Chase : " — 

" And long before high noon they had 
An hundred fat buckes slaine, 
Then having din'd, the drovyers went 
To rouze the deere againe.". 

Our own lawyer, Sawyer and Bowyer, bear evidence of the 
same change. Header and writer, fisher and fowler, glover 
and hatter, hearer, and seer with its special, beautiful mean- 
ing, are old Saxon words so formed. In our day there pre- 
vails a fashion to make such nouns from verbs, and maker, 
founder, and doer, are of comparatively modern origin. 
Beggar and sailor are due to the same process. 

The Latin tor having undergone a frequent change into 
eur in French, words derived from that language present 
a strange variety of spelling, which is due to the fact, that 
er has since been continually confounded with the French 
eur or er. Thus we have now actor and sponsor, but also 
volunteer, auctioneer, mutineer, mountaineer, muleteer, buc- 
caneer, and pioneer (from the Spanish peon, originally 
pedone, men on foot who cleared the way before an army 
of knights) ; but engineer is from ingenieur (ingeniator), 
and chanticleer from chante clair. In other words we spell 
it or, as in bachelor from bachelier, savior from sauveur (sal- 
vator), and wrongly, in sailor. Glazier, hosier and spurrier, 
are Saxon words with French terminations, whilst barrier, 
carrier, courtier, and courier, have nothing at all to do with 
'the Saxon er. Soldier has assumed it, we know not how, 
although it comes originally from solidarius, the man who 
received for his fighting-wages a solidus (nummus), the 
standard coin of the Romans. Collier, on the other hand, 



148 



STUDIES EST ENGLISH. 



looks quite foreign, and is yet nothing but good Saxon coal 
and wer, coalman, just as we say milkman ; it was in old 
writings called colger, and hence the contraction. In the 
same relation to each other stand hostler, from the ancient 
hospitaller, a word sadly reduced alike in form and in mean- 
ing, and the curious word brother, literally one of the same 
brood. It is not to be wondered at, that in the course 
of time, especially under Norman influence, the force and 
meaning of this little syllable should have often been for- 
gotten, a circumstance which led to its occasional repetition 
in the same word. Thus we have fruiter-er, and sorcerer 
from the French sorcier (sortiarius). Shakespeare uses 
for our poulterer the simple form poulter ; and when Henry 
VIII. was visited by Charles V., the accounts had it : — 
" Item, to appoint four pulters to serve for the said persons 
of all manner of pultry" The same word occurs in Stat. 2 
and 3 Edward VL ch. 25, and Henry VIII. incorporated the 
" Poulters' Company." Caterer is a mere mis-pronunciation 
of the word acheter in days when ch was sounded like k, 
and Rocheby was the name of modern Rugby, Saunterer 
only looks like a word derived in this manner, but it really 
comes from Sainte Terre, and was a name given to those 
who, after the Crusades, went to the Holy Land without 
any definite business, which finally became equal to going 
no where in particular. In other words the er is purely 
French, as in : — 

barber, 

river, 

prayer, 

danger, 

manner, 

matter, 

gardener, 

Draper comes to us from the French for cloth, drap, which we 
preserve in drab, the original color of cloth. Grocer was at 
first grosser, from gros, meaning a man who sold by the gross, 
although curiously enough they were formerly called pep- 



om 


barbier, 


from 


barbarius ; 


tt 


riviere, 


u 


ripuaria; 


u 


priere, 


tt 


precaria ; 


cc 


danger, 


It 


damnuarium ; 


it 


maniere, 


tt 


maneries ; 


it 


matiere, 


u 


materia. 


It 


jardinier. 







HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 149 

perers. Statutes, prescribing that English merchants must 
choose one ware or merchandise and deal in no other, say, 
" De ceo que les Marchaundy nomer Grossers engrossent totes 
manieres des marchandises vendables." Stationers had at 
first nothing to do with paper or printing, but derived 
their name from their regular station, which distinguished 
them from the mass of itinerant vendors. Butchers, from 
the French vouchers, were long called bochers. " A bocher 
that selleth swyne's flesh that is anywise mesele, corrupt or 
in morrayne " is threatened by law (Stowe, Vol. II. page 
445), and WicklifFe says, " Al thing that is seeld in the 
bocheri" (1 Cor. x. 25,) using it for our " shambles." Skel- 
ton prefers the French form and says — 

" For drede of the Boucher'' s dog 
Wold worry them like a hog." 

We ought not to forget that the name of Boucher is derived 
in a far more honorable way, for Saintfoix tells us in his 
" Historical Essays," that " anciently Le Boucher was a 
glorious surname given to a general after a victory in 
acknowledgment of the carnage which he had caused." It 
is a pity the fact should have been forgotten, whilst on the 
other hand we are more grateful for such oblivion in the 
case of Fletcher, the original form of which was in England 
Flesher. The origin of the name of Tucker is quite peculiar. 
It is derived from the town of Toucques in Normandy, 
near Abbeville, whence the manufacture of cloth was first 
brought to Bristol and the West of England. In Stat. 2 
and 3 Philip and Mary, ch. 12, 1555, the cloth workers are 
called tuckers and the mills tucking mills. Currier comes 
from the French cuir (corium), and so it is spelt in Stowe. 
" Also the assize of a coryour is that he cory no manner 
of ledder," and WicklifTe has " This is herboride at a man 
symount couriour" Acts x. 6. Usher is the Anglicized 
huissier, and among proper names we find Jenner, the old 
form of joiner, Butler or Boteler from bottler, and Milner 
from the Anglo-Saxon miln, our mill. Nothing but the for- 



150 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

cible law of analogy, the power of the majority to coerce the 
minority in language, can explain why the Latin charta 
should be charter and the Spanish daga our dagger. It is 
a clear abuse, on the other hand, where the truly masculine 
er has been added to feminine nouns, as in drake from 
andrake, the German enterich, in gander from Gans, now 
goose, and in widower. 

In many words the syllable er has met very strange 
company ; and thus it can hardly feel quite at home by the 
side of a Latin subjunctive or the name of a Spanish city. 
Still, such is its fate in Sumner and cordwainer. The 
former is derived from submoneas (thou shalt summon), the 
order given to a certain officer to cite delinquents before 
an ecclesiastical court. From the first word of his order, 
used like the lawyer's jl. fa. or the statesman's habeas cor- 
pus, he was probably once called a submoneas-er, though 
the earliest mention in the Coventry Mysteries gives him 
already a more modern name — 

" Sir Somnor in hast wend thou thi way 
Byd Josef and his wyfF be name 
At the coorte to apper this day," 

whilst Chaucer writes it sumptuously Sompnoure. The 
other word, cordwainer, takes its origin from the city of 
Cordova and its celebrated goatskin-leather. The same 
Mysteries say — 

" Of ffine Cordewan a goodly peyre of long pikyd schon, 
Hosyn enclosyd of the most costly ous cloth of crenscyn." 

As the famous material is now only manufactured in 
Morocco, that city in its turn gives its present name to this 
kind of leather. Another city gave us anciently Roamer, 
a man who makes a pilgrimage to Rome, the same as the 
Italian Romeo, which still survives in our verb to roam. A 
ludicrous mistake is hidden in the word bumper. Once 
upon a time the great toast of every feast was le bon pere, 
meaning of course the Holy Father, and as it was generally 
the final toast it was considered that the glasses would be 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 151 

desecrated by being ever again used. The contraction of 
Bon Pere into Bumper hardly requires the apology of a 
protracted feast; but being accompanied by this general 
smash it was as frequently designated as la JBrise Generate \ u 
the ancestor of that " General Breese " to whom, as to a 
famous warrior, many an enthusiastic toast has been drunk 
since the earlier popes. 

The corresponding feminine termination of our language 
is the much rarer ster, by some traced back to the Sanscrit 
stre, meaning woman. Older authors abound in words 
formed by such means. Sir John Mandeville, and others 
after him, speak of tombestres and similar professions, which 
by charter or monopoly were practised by women only. 
At a later date, however, men began to invade these 
branches of industry and yet to retain the female appella- 
tion for some time. After a time the masculine terms 
drove the old ones out of the language, even as the men 
had driven the women out of the employments. The fact 
is, that in oldest times war prevailed everywhere, and 
almost constantly, and claimed for the service all able- 
bodied men. When peace was restored, large numbers of 
the latter came home and turned out the women who had 
in the mean time filled their places. Hence we have in 
modern English the forms in -estre yet, but without the 
original meaning. This transfer from the feminine to the 
masculine gender is all the more easily explained, as there 
are nearly a hundred words in -ier derived from foreign 
sources, and all masculine, which naturally aided in effacing 
the original grammatical force inherent to -ster. Thus we 
find already in " Piers' Ploughman," (434) — 

u Baksteres and Brewesteres 
And Bochiers manye ; 
Wollen Webbesteres 
And Weveres of lynnen," 

without any indication of sex or gender. Songster is one 
of the few words of this class which, even in our day, may 



152 STUDIES m ENGLISH. 

be used for both genders, although songstress occurs not 
unfrequently. To hawk goods about was the privilege of 
men who were then called hawkers, and of women who 
became hawkestres, from which our huckster. In like 
manner women long monopolized the right to brew beer, 
and hence tapster is used by Chaucer as another word for 
hostess, and Shelton says — 

" A tappystre like a lady bright." — I. 239. 

Whether women ever drove teams by the same right is 
not ascertained, but in the days of Henry VIII. they were 
certainly still called teamsters. The much abused spinster 
derives her name from the legal fiction which presumes all 
elderly unmarried women to spin, as well as all good wives 
to weave, the words weave, woof, and wife all coming from 
the same common ancestor. It seems a delicate irony that 
the bar of the inn should have been transferred to the court- 
room, and that thus the barrister still bears the feminine 
ending under his wig and gown. In one word at least the 
Saxon -stre has joined a Danish word. This is the case in 
Danish svein, the swain of our poets, the boatswain on board 
ship ; the feminine was made as sweoster, and has given us 
our modern sister. 

Large numbers of such words are used as patronymics 
for men, because these are generally derived from male and 
not from female ancestors. Thus we have Webster from web 
and weave, and Brewster, which still survives as a common 
noun in Hull, where in public court publicans are licensed 
and advertised by that name. Many of these names, how- 
ever, are no doubt to be ascribed originally to cases in 
which the father did not choose to acknowledge the pater- 
nity, according to the old saying, " Qui pater est populus 
non habet patrem." In old times it is by no means rare to 
find names pointing to the conduct or the character of the 
mother, who founded a family. Thus, William the Conqueror 
boastfully used his name of Bastard, and even in lower 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 153 

ranks we meet frequently with names like Leeman, some- 
times changed into Lemon, Hussy, Par amor e, and Trollope ; 
of this kind is also Baxter, which comes from bakestre, the 
Jcs being changed into x, just as cockscomb is now coxcomb, 
and pokkes are now pox in small-pox. Bakestre also is still 
used in some parts of Scotland for baker. Wooster is from 
the happy profession of wooing, as Songster from singing ; 
the humble work of thatching roofs has given us Thaxter ; 
and, according to Mr. Lower's ingenious suggestion, the still 
harder work imposed upon women engaging themselves 
by the day, the name of Dexter from daegestre. Foster is 
the same as Forster from the fuller forester, though occa- 
sionally it seems to have been derived from foodster, as in 
foster-mother. Dempster conies from deeming, the Saxon 
word for judging ; hence the judges of Jersey and the Isle 
of Man are still called Deemsters, whilst unfortunately in 
Scotland the legal name for the common hangman was for- 
merly Dempster. 

Occasionally we meet with regular forms, representing 
both genders. Thus we have Weaver and Webster, Fibber — 
used by Thackeray in " Vanity Fair " — and Fibster, and 
Singer and Sangster. The two words Tounker and Young- 
ster, originally standing in the same simple relation to each 
other, are now used, the first with contempt, the second for 
a young man, having its meaning transferred from one sex 
to the other. 

The Scotch seem to have a peculiar preference for this 
ending, for we find among them a large number of words 
in ster, not used in England, such as brandster, bangster 
(from bang!), dy ester, landmetstre, maw ster, kemster, (wool- 
carder) and cogster (flax-breaker.) On the other hand we 
notice, since the days of the " Spectator," which uses roadster, 
a disposition to use -ster as an expression of contempt, 
perhaps from an instinctive association with the Latin aster 
in poetaster. Thus we use punster and fibster, gamester and 
trickster. 



154 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

As soon as the original meaning of -ster was lost to the 
perception of the mass of the people, there arose a ten- 
dency to add another feminine termination for the better 
expression of the gender. Although, therefore, Ben Jon- 
son still uses both seamster and songster of women, we find 
the French termination esse added to the former, as seam- 
stress, as early as 1699, and Thompson speaks already of a 
songstress. Upholster, from upholder, is an older form than 
either. 

This same termination, -ess, the representative of the 
Latin -ix, and surviving in executrix and the rare directrix, 
is, of course, a gift of our Norman masters, but never very 
freely used in English, and applied to but few Saxon roots. 
In some words it has almost vanished in the process of 
being Anglicized, as in nourrice (nutrix), which we now 
call nurse ; in others, even in foreign words, it has been 
entirely dropped, as in the once generally used cousiness. 
We find it, therefore, although an important feminine end- 
ing of our language, most frequently in pure Latin and 
French words, as in peeress, heiress, lioness, and princess, 
which, by the way, is by some learned men considered the 
only word in English with an accent not on its legitimate 
syllable, the radical. The exception is made, it is said, in 
order to distinguish it from the plural of prince. It is not 
quite clear why this syllable, among so many of its kind, 
should have been so particularly unfortunate as not to 
harmonize with the Saxon character of the language. It 
cannot be denied, however, that older authors used it fre- 
quently and fondly in cases in which it is now utterly 
unknown. In Wickliffe's New Testament, we find spou- 
sesse, cosinesse, synneress, friendess, servantess, and leperess. 
Bishop Fisher's works abound with saintesses. Milton has 
auditress, cateress, chantress, and tyranness, whilst in Shake- 
speare we meet with cloisteress, and fornicatress. Sterne 
uses deaness, and Addison detractress. All these forms are 
unknown to our generation. A curious word of this class 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 155 

is derived from the French lavandiere, a washer-woman, 
which first gave us lavender; from this a new feminine 
was made, in a contracted form, belonging to the days when 
v and u were written alike, the modern laundress, and from 
this again an artificial masculine launderer. From negro 
and votary we obtain, with a loss of the final vowel, our 
negress and votaress, and some will have it that lad made, 
once upon a time, a feminine ladfless, which subsequently 
shrunk into simple lass. 

A still rarer termination of this class is the ancient -in, 
commonly traced back to the Northern cvin, a woman, from 
which our forefathers' quean, and our own queen. It was 
formerly much employed, and is in German still used, as the 
principal feminine ending ; in modern English it is, how- 
ever, scarcely ever met with. The Scotch carlin, the fem- 
inine of carl or churl, is well known through Burns' — 

" There were five carlins in the South, 
That fell upon a scheme, 
To send a lad to London town, 
To bring them tidings heme." 

The gyre-carline of Scotland is nothing less than the mother 
of witches, of whom the Ballad of Glenfinlas sings : 

" Thair dwelt ane grit Gyre- Carline in auld Betokio-bour, 
That livit upoun Christiane mene's flesche." 

It is curious that this strange-sounding word is, in reality, 
the same word as our familiar girl, the latter ?eing nothing 
more than the contracted form of ceorl-in, cin-in, i. e., a lit- 
tle churl, and originally in old English, of both genders. We 
are unfortunately more familiar with a vixen, a name which 
hides to the superficial observer its connection with fox, from 
which it is derived by a change of vowel as filly is from foal. 
Maiden is suspected of being formed by the aid of -in, as 
maegd was in Anglo-Saxon used for both genders. The 
adopted titles of Margravine, Palsgravine, and Landgravine 
have, however, nothing to do with the derivative syllable ; 
they are merely English imitations of the German Grafinn, 



156 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

whilst heroine, which is often counted in under this head, is 
pure Greek (rjpwivrj.) 

Intimately connected with these means of forming nouns 
expressive of sex, are similar ones employed to convey the 
idea of diminution. Unfortunately, the English language 
possesses but few of these, which deprives it of the many 
charms and endearing expressions, for which German and 
especially the Sclavonic languages are so famous. It seems 
as if the Englishman's national reluctance to let the world 
become aware of his inward feelings — that apparent cold- 
ness which makes him in the eyes of foreigners the most 
reserved and least amiable of men — had affected the lan- 
guage also. Thoso that we possess are chiefly of Saxon 
origin ; there are a few we owe to the French, but not one 
has survived from the Latin. 

The oldest of all, if we may judge from its absence in 
Scotch, and most probably of Frisian origin, is the word 
kin, closely connected, though probably not identical with 
the ancient cyn, our modern kith and kin. The transition 
from that which is not the thing itself but only akin to it, to 
the idea of diminution, is common to all languages. Thus 
we use lambkin and catkin. Mannikin is both the lay figure 
of the artist and the dwarf in actual life, which latter meaning 
agrees with the Latin homunciones and the Italian name 
Piccoluomini, famous in history. Minnikin does not, like 
the former, come from man, but from the same root with 
Latin minus and German minder, which reappears in minx 
and minion. As we have obtained Alaric from the German 
Ulrich, so we take their word Gurke and make from it our 
diminutive gerkin. Jerkin, on the other hand, is from the 
Frisian-Dutch jurk, a frock or short jacket ; bumpkin, from 
the Dutch boom, our beam, means not only a man of small 
sense, whom, substituting block for boom, we often call a 
blockhead, as the Spaniards call him a juez de palo, but is 
even now used in its original signification, as a naval term 
to designate a bar of timber. Pipkin is a little pipe, such 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 157 

as contains madeira, and hence often, in the descending 
scale, nothing more than a little pot ; finikin comes in like 
manner from fine, and firkin from four, meaning the fourth 
of a barrel, as farthing meant originally the fourth of a 
penny. Monihin is a malformation from monkey, as Malkin 
is from Mary, whilst the diminutive of Lady in the sense of 
the Holy Virgin, has given rise to the oath " By our Lakin.'' 
In like manner arose " God's bodykin " or " Ods bodikins" and 
even " Ods pitylcins" as we find it in Shakespeare. The only 
important case in which kin has been added to a foreign 
word is napkin, which contains the old Frisian word tacked 
on to the French la nappe, from the Latin mappa, which 
originally meant any cloth, and hence is still the common 
name for handkerchief in Scotland, in the same manner in 
which it is used by Shakespeare in " Othello." 

Perhaps quite as old is our y, which appears in Scotch 
exclusively as ie, and hence has produced so great and un- 
pleasant variety in the spelling of proper names. We have 
Betty and Betsey, Billy and Barney, (from Bernard,) Molly 
and Fanny, Sally and Sadie, the latter already pure Scotch. 
The Scotch have many more, and add to Willie, Davie, Peg- 
gie, Tibbie and Annie, also lassie and laddie, daddie and wifie, 
even sternie, cootie, and housie. Occasionally they love, we 
know not why, to insert an uk before the ie, and thus Whitelaw 
among his Scotch songs has one called " The wee wifukie ; " 
and Burns uses droppukie, housukie, and Bessukie. Their 
number in English is much smaller, and some seem to have 
been lost more recently, for in Shakespeare we find repeat- 
edly county, for little count (Romeo, III. 5, and alias), 
which is now no longer in use. Ninny and noddy occurs 
but rarely now in comparison with older authors ; dummy 
is from thumb, and granny from grandame, formed like 
beldame. Baby is of course from babe, but its meaning is 
modern ; for formerly it meant pictures in books as in these 
lines : — 



158 STUDIES IN ENGLISH, 

" We gaze but on babies and the cover, 
The gaudy and flowered edges painted over, 
And never further for our lesson look 
Within the volume of this various book." 

Sylvester Dubartas, ed. London 1621, p. 285. 

Another diminutive, which is much more popular on the 
northern side of the Tweed than south of it, is -ock, which 
occurs but in a few words in English. Thus we have hill- 
ock and bullock ; paddock means both a small enclosure and 
a toad, derived in the latter case from the Dutch padde, the 
Anglo-Saxon pada. Hummock is from hump, buttock from 
the French bout, the end, and ruddock represents the little 
red one, viz : Robin Red-breast. In Scotland, on the con- 
trary, ock is still used as a common diminutive, and occurs 
in wifock and mannock, in laddock and lassovk, in willock 
and mannock. It is not improbable that this same termina- 
tion, so fertile in names like Davock, Jamock, Bessock, and 
Jeanock, may have softened into the above-mentioned uk 
under the influence of the affectionate -ie, which has been 
added. Names in -ock are more common ; Baldwin has 
given us Baldock, Paul, as has been mentioned before, Poll- 
ock, and finally Polk ; Matthew is often Mattock. Care must 
be had, however, not to attribute all similar names to the 
same origin, for Bowcock, which resembles the class very 
much, is the Anglicized Beau Coq of the Normans ; Have- 
lok is a pure Danish name, and Gavelok is derived from 
the Anglo-Saxon gaveluce, as in the verse — 

" GaveluJces also thike flowe 
So gnattes, ichich avowe." 

Arthour and Merlin, p. 338. 

Our Anglo-Saxon fathers have bequeathed us their favor- 
ite -ing, which originally expressed descent, as in the great 
name of their Aethelings, the sons of the noble, and only 
secondarily acquired the power of diminution. The Ger- 
mans also have their kindred -ung, and the connection of 
this syllable with our young is not to be doubted. In 
ancient times it often meant simply son, and already, in 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 159 

824, we read of "Eadberht Eadgaring" (son of Edgar), and 
" Aethelheah Esning " (son of Esna). Hence it served often 
to form patronymics, many of which survive, like Manning, 
Dunning, Browning, Whiting, Waring, and Dering. Herring 
is derived from here, the German Heer, a host, and ex- 
pressive of the number and order in which the enormous 
shoals of herrings arrive in English waters. It is curious 
to notice how this syllable has been used in the names of 
English coins. Penning, from which our penny, may be 
from pan, the form of the ancient Bractata, which resembled 
hollow pans, and were first known in the lands of Ina, king 
of Wessex, in 688. Four of them made a shilling, literally 
a small shield or coat of arms, exactly as the French ecu 
comes from the Latin scutum, still called in Italian a scudo. 
The full word penning has been shortened into penny, and 
when Edward I. reduced its weight to a standard of thirty- 
two grains of wheat, taken from the middle of the ear, it 
gave its name to a pennyweight. Before that king each 
coin had been marked with a cross so as to admit of its 
being easily and justly cut into four quarters, and hence the 
farthing or fourth-ing of those days. To avoid fraud, how- 
ever, Edward I. caused round pieces to be coined, especially 
for half and quarter pennies. Hence the sad degradation of 
the farthing, which is now the fourth part of a penny, whilst 
formerly it was the same fraction of a gold noble. Stat. 
9 Henry V. and Stat. 2, ch. 7 (1421), say, "that the king 
do to be ordained good and just weight of the noble, the 
half noble and the farthing of noble." This was done, there- 
fore, precisely in the same manner in which the Roman 
quadrans was made to express the fourth part of an as. 

It must not be overlooked, however, that every now and 
then the termination -ing appears also as a mere augmen- 
tative, after the manner in which -ain was added to French 
words. For as mount made mountain, and fount, fountain, 
so even makes evening, and morn, morning. 

The diminutive -ling has also passed through two distinct 



160 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

stages, expressing at first simply small size, and then pass- 
ing into the idea of subjection. Words of the former kind 
are our seedling, nurseling, stripling, and bantling, from the 
band in which children were wont to be swathed. In ani- 
mals it indicates with smallness also youth, as in yearling, 
nestling, starling, groundling, (of fishes,) duckling, suckling, 
-firstling, and even of trees, sapling, because it has as yet no 
heart but only sap. Added to dear, it has become, as darling, 
an expression of tenderness. The transition from smallness 
of body to smallness of soul was here also easy enough ; thus 
we have lordling, underling, and worldling. It is somewhat 
strange that hireling, which means, just like soldatus, one 
who serves for coin and not for his love of master or coun- 
try, should now be used with contempt, and soldier with 
honor. Fondling has undergone a change for the better. 
In former days it meant a weak man, a fool, and in this 
sense it is used in Burton's " Anatomy/' III. 3. " We have 
many such fondlings, that are their wives' pack-horses and 
slaves." The origin of sterling is curious. It was anciently 
written Estarling, and meant an Easterling, i. e., a man from 
the East, especially from the Hanse towns. These thrifty 
merchants introduced their pure coinage under Richard I., 
and their coins being called after them, this gave rise to 
the expression " sterling money." Subsequently the name 
was transferred to everything in its way excellent and gen- 
uine. The loss of some of these words in -ling, used by our 
ancestors, is much to be regretted ; our vagabond is but a 
poor substitute for the ancient scatterling, and lunatic is 
much less suggestive than moonling. 

Besides these diminutives of the German part of our 
language we have a few that belong to the French addition. 
Among these the most fertile is -et, the older form of the 
more frequent -ette, which occurs quite early, as in — 

" Et se li prend de rire envie 
Si sagement et si belvie, 
Qu' elle descrive deux fossettes 
D'ambedeux parts de ses joettes." 

Roman de la Eose. 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 161 

Being French, and apparently not very easily joined to true 
Saxon words, this syllable has either come into use only 
lately, or in other cases lost its first meaning. Instead of 
the modern pocket, we find that Henry VIII. put a certain 
"book into his poke" and even as late as Shakespeare, 
melancholy Jaques, in the u Forest of Arden," 

u Drew a dial from his poke 
And looking on it with lacklustre eye. 
Says very wisely: It is ten o'clock." 

Now, the diminutive meaning is entirely lost, for we speak 
of vast and capacious pockets ; so it is in packet, pullet, 
trumpet, and lancet from the French words poule, trompe, 
and lance. In russet from roux, and in owlet, its diminutive 
power is still felt ; in martinet and islet at least in a moder- 
ate degree. Varlet is the French valet, which again is the 
substitute for the older vaslet, the diminutive of vassallus. 
In the single word linnet it has not only been added to an 
old Saxon word, but actually superseded the original Saxon 
diminutive, for before the invasion the word was linece. 

Our diminutive -el is mainly derived from the old French 
ending -el, which was subsequently very generally softened 
into -eau. Our English words having been imported from 
the French at the time that -el was still in use, they have 
preserved the old form with us, whilst they have changed 
on the Continent. Thus we say — 

mackerel, the old French maqueral, for the modern maquereau; 
pommel, " pommel, " pommeau; 

castle, " chatel, " chateau; 

prunel, " prunel, " pruneau. 

As a true diminutive it is rare in English. We have from 
cock, cocker, and then cockerel. Thus in Shakespeare : — 

Ariel Which of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow ? 

Seb. The old cock. 

Ant. The cockrel. Tempest, II. 1. 

From pike we make pickerel, and from sour, sorrel. Satchel 
stands alone. Bottle and corbeil in fortifications come to us 
11 



162 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

from the original German forms butte and horb, through the 
pseudo-Latin diminutives boticula and corbiculus and the 
French bouteille and corbeille. Here also care must be had 
not to confound with these true diminutives words termi- 
nating now in -el and now in -le, which are derived from 
Latin plurals, such as : — 

battle, from the French bataille, and the Latin batualia ; 
entrail, " entraille, " entralia; 

marvel, " merveille, " mirabilia. 

Occasionally an additional r is inserted before this -el, as in 
mongrel from the Saxon meng, which we have in mingle 
and in among ; in wastrel from waste, a common, and pro- 
vincially at least, and in Scotland, hangrel, a small hook, 
and gangrel, a vagabond. Unlike the before mentioned -et, 
this syllable combines quite readily with certain old Saxon 
words, as shovel, bundle from bound, needle, and muzzle from 
mouth. In flail, fowl, and nail we see a mere contraction 
from the original -flaegel,faegel and naegl, still preserved 
in the German words Flegel, Vogel and Nagel. The 
termination -let, which is occasionally used for similar pur- 
poses, seems to be nothing -else but a combination of -el 
and -et, such as appears in the French words oiselet and ozillet, 
and the Italian manteletto, although there is some possibility 
that it might have originated in the Anglo-Saxon lyt, our 
little. The old French hamel (now hameau) became thus 
hamlet ; other examples are crosslet, and sparklet and streamlet, 
in which the foreign termination is added to Saxon words. 

Diminutive endings of classic origin are found in ferrule 
and chapel, and compound in ret-ic-ule, a very small net, 
particle, article, and curricle, while vermicelli and violoncello 
have come to us through the Italian. 

Other diminutive endings of this kind are still so far 
foreign to our ear and mind that we generally use them 
without a clear perception of their original meaning. When 
we speak of a libel, we rarely think of a small book, nor do 
words like vehicle and obstacle convey to us the idea of dim- 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. J 63, 

inution. Globule and animalcule, being scientific terms, are 
more likely to be correctly appreciated ; circle suggests but 
a certain figure. Still less are Greek forms of this kind 
likely to be understood, and few ever think of a little king 
or a small star, when they use the words basilisk and aster- 
isk ; nor is obelisk apt to be more suggestive. 

A third class of such terminations are employed to form 
augmentatives, and these also are generally of foreign origin. 
Thus from the French we take mountain from mount, and 
fountain from fount, standard and bombard ; from the Italian 
trombone from trump, balloon from ball ; and from the Span- 
ish barracoon. But there is no lack of old Saxon syllables, 
also, which were once used for this purpose, and can easily 
be traced back to the word from which they descend. 
Thus we find that wold, the German wald, enters into com- 
mon nouns and proper names alike, soon losing, of course, 
its delicate initial. Threshold meant at first the thresh wold 
or wooden floor for threshing, which was almost always just 
before the house door, where it may still be found in many 
countries. Arnold and Reynold are made in like manner. 
Then we have wolf, which, however, already of old seems 
to have lost both its first letter and its original meaning. 
It now survives only in the mis-spelt names of JBardolph, 
Marcolph, Randolph, and Adolphus with their inorganic ph. 
The more frequent termination -ard owes its origin probably 
to more than one ancestor, as its many different meanings 
can only be explained by ascribing them to as many differ- 
ent sources. In some words it is no doubt the same as hard, 
and was derived from the German through the French. 
This meaning we find in Bernard, Reynard, and Leonard, 
from the bear, the fox, and the lion ; in wizard, whom Dr. 
Angus facetiously describes as too wise by half, from wise, 
in staggard, a stag of four years old, in buzzard, and in hag- 
gard, which probably meant looking hard as a hag. Pollard 
is not yet explained, though it may come from Paul, and 
dastard is not made of hard, but is only the Anglo-Saxon 



164 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

participle of the verb dastrian, once spelt dastrod, although 
it has also been explained as a contraction of dared and 
hard. In other words it may be traced back to our Saxon 
word ward. This explanation would give a sad blow to 
some of our finest names, as Hayward would become but 
the ward or guardian of hay, Stoddard of the stud, Dur- 
ward, of the door, Kennard of the kennel, and Steward of 
the (house) stead or the stow. Goddard, the goat-ward, is 
still at the North pronounced Gotherd, and there means a 
fool, which adds some probability to the surmise that coward 
might, in like manner, be simply the cow-ward. Poor Ho- 
garth would become a hog-ward, and sink still lower, as 
Swift says of him in his clever satire of the Legion- Club : — 

" How I want thee, hum'rous Hogart, 
Thou, I hear, a pleasant rogue art." 

Of Bastard nothing more is definitely known than the as- 
sociation with base birth, as in " King Lear," I. 2 — 

" Why bastard ? Wherefore base ? ' ' 

In Old English the termination was frequently used in a 
depreciatory and contemptuous sense ; thus we find blinkard 
in the Homilies, dizzard in Burton's "Anatomy," dullard 
in Shakespeare's " King Lear," puggard and stinkard. The 
majority of these words are no longer in use ; we still 
have, however, braggard and lug gar d, drunkard and dotard, 
dullard and niggard, which Shakespeare in " Julius Caesar " 
even uses as a verb, saying of the night, — 

"Which we will niggard with a little rest." 

To derive Gifford from u give hard " is probably too violent 
a presumption, but in changing sweethard, as it originally 
was, into sweetheart, no great harm seems to have been 
done to the meaning. 

French augmentatives can hardly be said to be in use in 
modern English. The only genuine syllable of the kind is 
perhaps our -ee, which comes down to us indirectly from 
the Latin -atus. The latter survives, oddly enough, in some 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 165 

of our words as -ate, even where the same words have been 
essentially modified in French. We still have state, curate, 
and advocate, from the corresponding Latin words, where 
our neighbors have now etat, cure, and avocat. True 
French terms of this kind me feoffee, referee, legatee, jubilee, 
and debauchee, retaining, as may be seen, the French accent 
on the last syllable, with the exception only of committee 
and apogee. Levee may come from the Latin levata, though 
it is more commonly derived from the French verb lever ; 
grandee owes its last syllable simply to an effort to imitate 
the Spanish pronunciation of grande. The -ee is not un- 
frequently exchanged for a simple y, which represents, 
however, the same Latin -atus, as in country from contrata, 
duchy from ducatus, journey from diurnata, clergy from 
clericatus, beauty from bellitatem, city from civitatem, and 
bounty from bonitatem. The same y, it must not be over- 
looked, stands quite as often for the Romance termination 
-ie, as in cavalry and infantry, fancy and courtesy. A curi- 
ous feature of this class of words is, that they often assume 
an r before the y, for no other ostensible reason than from 
the force of analogy with some word like artillery, aided 
by a few Saxon words with a natural r as buttery. Such are, 
e. g., of Saxon words : fishery, shrubbery, rookery and mid- 
wifery, and of Norman-French words: peasantry, bravery 
and debauchery. 

Besides these three important classes of nouns, which 
convey, in addition to the meaning of the radical part, the 
ideas of descent, diminution and augmentation, followed 
by nicer shades of signification, we find in English certain 
derivative nouns, in which the addition does not produce so 
clear a change of meaning. This is especially the case 
when the suffixes, though once full and significant nouns, 
are no longer used as such, and now appear only as parts 
of other words. The Anglo-Saxon had thus from the verb 
deman to deem, a noun dom, which survives in the mod- 
ern doom. We speak still of " dooms-day " as the day of 



166 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

final judgment, and of a " Domes-day Book," not only of 
William the Conqueror, but such as King Alfred already 
made, when he divided his kingdom into hundreds and 
tithings. The Dooms of Ethelbert are dear to us as first 
recognizing Christianity and establishing the Church in 
Kent. The doom of a traitor is I still expressive enough ; 
but nouns made up by the aid of this word do not profit 
any longer by its special meaning. Freedom and thraldom 
are old Saxon words ; birthdom is now rare ; kingdom and 
earldom are as recent as Christendom and the less fre- 
quent Heathendom. It will be seen that in most cases dom 
is added to the names of persons or their peculiar qualities, 
and thus serves, very generally, to designate the corre- 
sponding state, office, or dignity. In wisdom and freedom it 
has been added to adjectives ; dukedom and martyrdom are 
the offspring of a Saxon and a Norman word united. 

The curious suffix -ric, derived from the Saxon rican, 
to rule, bears on its face clear marks of its ancient connec- 
tion with the Greek and Latin root reg, which we preserve 
in words like 'regal or direct. It conveys the idea of rule 
and of its extent, the former e. g. in Aelfric, he who rules 
with elf-like wisdom, the latter in Surrey, formerly Southric, 
the kingdom south of the river Thames. The two words 
hood and head, which we meet with so frequently in Eng- 
lish, are alike from the old verb haebban, our to have, 
and express vaguely the state or condition of things. Its 
corresponding form in German is heit, and in Bavaria and 
other parts of Germany, the common people speak even 
in our day of the good or bad " Heit," or state of affairs. 
In an ancient metrical version of the Athanasian Creed, 
copied in Hickes' " Thesaurus," (I. 233,) we find " Ne the 
hodes auht mengande," i. e., neither aught confounding the 
persons. Priesthood, monkhood, knighthood, and childhood 
occur very early in our language ; womanhood, neighborhood, 
and widowhood from nouns, and likelihood, falsehood, and 
hardihood are comparatively modern. Here also hybrids 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 167 

occur frequently, as in falsehood and squirehood. Head 
seems to have been employed when the full meaning of 
the original noun was to be conveyed, for which reason we 
probably say Godhead and manhood. Maidenhead does not 
belong to this class, as it refers literally to a head of the 
Virgin Mary, an image which stood in that locality, as 
Bagford writes to Hearne. Our modern -ship comes from 
the Saxon verb scaepan, to shape, and expresses but rarely 
any thing more than the general idea of form and fashion. 
It is, however, interesting to notice how, in the only two 
instances in which the original spelling of the word is pre- 
served, the precise meaning also survives. They are land- 
scape, occasionally written landship, and foolscap, which does 
not mean, as is generally believed and even conveyed in 
the water-mark, a fool's cap, but the shape of folio, a large 
leaf. The term is as old as Queen Anne, whose statute laid 
a tax on " Genoa foolscap fine and second," in order to 
protect the home-manufacture of paper against the com- 
petition of Italian importations. From the same root in fol- 
ium (the Greek (j>v\\ov) we derive our " foliage," the leaves 
of a tree, and at least the idea, when we speak of turning 
over the leaves of a book. Of modern forms worship 
deserves an explanation. It consists of worth and shape, 
meaning " to hold worthy," in esteem and in honor, and is 
thus used in the much-abused words of our beautiful 
marriage-service, " and with my body thee worship." As this 
part of our church service has been handed down, almost 
unaltered, from the days of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, 
this word, like a few others, has here retained its original, 
simple meaning, and has of course nothing to do with the 
now current signification of worshiping God or idols. 

Shire comes in like manner from a Saxon verb scearan, 
which has given us a perfect host of descendants, all of 
which retain just enough resemblance to their ancestor to 
be able to prove their legitimacy, and yet have branched 
off into widely different meanings. The fundamental idea 



168 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

is, of course, to cut off ; hence the severed part is a share 
in business, or a shore, when separated by sea ; the instru- 
ments for doing the act are shears and nautically sheers. 
What has been cut off is called a (riofysherd, or with a 
transposed r a shred ; the mutilated remains are short or 
shorn ; when healed there remains a scar, as the cut-off 
piece of stuff may be either a shirt or a skirt. Ignorance 
is sheer, when it is cut off from all knowledge, and even 
sharp may belong to the family, if we accept the analogy 
of words formed like help and damp. The use of -shire is 
now almost exclusively limited to its meaning of cut-off 
portions of land and their local designation. In sheriff it 
has been sadly mutilated; the word contains shire and 
reeve, its superior officer. 

The syllable -ness, for which no legitimate pedigree has 
yet been found, is therefore suspected of being an impostor, 
consisting at first simply of double s, as in Greek and Latin 
words we find them added to certain roots, e. g., in OdXaacra 
and /jiiXtcrara, or mantissa and vibrissa. At a very early pe- 
riod of our history, however, an inorganic n seems to have 
crept in before the final letters, and thus it appears now 
in all Germanic languages. We have business, greatness, 
kindness, and likeness, righteousness, and lonesomeness ; and in 
dialects even drouthiesundieness, fondness for drink. None 
of these words can be used as verbs except one, and that 
is witness. The number of nouns formed in the same 
manner in foreign languages, and thence imported into 
English, is of course very great, but of comparatively less 
importance for modern English, as they did not grow on 
English soil, but were brought in ready made. Such are 
words like dominion, "homage, sanctimony, somnolency, verd- 
ure, motion, and justice, from the Latin, and eulogy, pan- 
orama, heroism, triad, and analysis from the Greek. 

Nouns have thus been shown to be either simple or 
derivative ; it remains but to say a few words with regard 
to compound nouns. Properly speaking, no real com- 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 169 

position has taken place unless actually two distinct words 
have been joined in such a manner as to produce by their 
joint meaning a third and new signification. In the 
modern form of languages, however, great license is 
allowed in this respect, and we find now all nouns called 
compound w T hich contain two distinct roots. Our Anglo- 
Saxon fathers were particularly fond of this class of 
nouns, as the nation was then still in the state of a child 
which cannot and will not form abstract ideas, and conse- 
quently does not use abstract nouns. As any such idea 
became clearer to all and entered into daily conversation, 
it became, of course, necessary to find an adequate ex- 
pression for it, and this was at first done by compound 
nouns. The Saxons were as poor mariners as the majority 
of Germans are to this day, thanks to their remoteness 
from the sea, and hence a ship was to them a mere-hus, or 
sea-house. Gast-gedale, the parting of the ghost with the 
body, was their nearest approach to our abstract " death ; " 
asc-plegan, the playing of ash (spears), suggested to their 
mind, familiar with the sight, the idea of " battle ; " and the 
Saviour was to them touchingly, as he is to the Germans to 
this day, the Healand, the " Healing " one. Unfortunately, but 
few of these beautiful and suggestive words survive ; and 
the loss is great, for they spoke clearly and appealingly to 
the minds of the mass, and almost always suggested a 
poetical idea to the educated. The language, even, seems 
to have parted with them most reluctantly, for we find that 
Old English long adhered to them, even when they were 
already sorely beset by our modern Latin terms. In those 
days writers would often use both the ancient and the new- 
fashioned term, as it suited the occasion. Thus Wickliffe has 
agenrysynge (again rising) and resurrection, out-taken and 
except. Gascoigne uses now star-conner and then astrol- 
oger ; Golding hesitates between half-god and demigod. 

The few that survive are not always as well preserved as 
witchcraft, handicraft, and bookcraft are, to which in Holland's 



170 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

" Plutarch," leechcraft is still regularly added. Many are 
so completely disguised that they have to be carefully 
studied and built up again, like the scattered skeleton of 
some ancient fossil. In gospel we may thankfully recog- 
nize the u good spell " or good message of our pious fathers, 
the evayyeXeta of the Greek. Acorn barely suggests the 
oak-corn or fruit, for corn was in those days used for all 
kinds of fruit, and not, as now, only for the particular staple 
of each country, by which abuse corn now means maize in 
America, wheat in England, rye in Germany, and barley 
in Sweden. Acton in Middlesex is, in like manner, the 
oak-town. Two compounds of the Saxon word eage, our 
eye, are interesting. Our ancestors spoke of a wind-eage, 
or wind's eye, which we call obscurely " window," and most 
poetically named our unmeaning " daisy," as Chaucer ex- 
plains in his charming verse: — 

" That well by reason men calls' it maie 
The daisie or else the eie of the daie." 

Emerson says very truly of these and similar words : " Is 
it not true that language is fossil poetry, made up of images 
and tropes, which now in their secondary use have long 
ceased to remind us of their poetic origin ? " One of the 
worst-treated words of this kind is deal, which has con- 
tinually dwindled down into simple die, so as to be mixed 
up with the diminutive -el Where our fathers spoke re- 
spectfully of a lyt-deal, a mid-deal, and a bound-deal, we say 
curtly little, middle, and bundle, as was done already in 
1559, when a political pamphlet had it thus : " Papistrie being 
an heresie or rather a Bondle made up of an infinite num- 
ber of heresies." The same fate has befallen dale ; Kent- 
dale, the place where the river Kent passes through a fair 
dale, is now Kendal, and Sleddel was originally Slate-dale. 
The oft-misquoted bridal has an entirely different origin : 
it is a mere reminiscence of the nuptial feast associated 
with the specially strong bride-ale. 

Originally the language possessed a guard against such 



HOW NOUNS ARE MADE. 171 

corruption in the rule that compound words invariably 
threw the accent on the first part of the compound. Thus 
a blackbird is easily distinguished from a black bird, and 
Newport from a new port ; but the rule suffered, at an 
early period, certain exceptions in the case of words in 
which such an accent would have made distinct pronuncia- 
tion impossible, as in monks-hood and well-head. Hence 
the distinction became less marked and the integrity of 
compound nouns was destroyed by the effect of this ap- 
parently insignificant agent. 

Large numbers of genuine compound nouns, again, have 
lost their compound meaning, and now represent, at least 
to the unlearned, but one single idea. These are mostly 
of foreign origin, which accounts for their dimmed signifi- 
cation. To this class belong vinegar, from the French 
vin aigre, sour wine ; verdict, from the Latin vere dictum ; 
bachelor, from the French bas chevalier, a lower knight, — al- 
though many maintain the connection with the barbarously 
formed baccalaureus ; biscuit, from the Latin bis coctus, 
twice baked, the Italian biscotta; and mildew, from the 
spurious German Mehlthau. 

The abuse of compound nouns is fortunately checked 
in English by the terse and concise nature of the language. 
The incontinence of other idioms in this respect is, how- 
ever, well known. The Sanscrit is reported to own at least 
one word of a hundred and fifty-two syllables. Aristoph- 
anes made one, for a special purpose, of seventy-seven. 
The Germans are proverbially fond of formidable words, 
which suit, admirably, sentences of forty and fifty lines. 
Occasionally even our English indulges in a monstrous 
combination, as when Miss Burney speaks of " the-sudden- 
at-the-moment-though-from-lingering-illness-often-previous- 
ly-expected-death of Mr. Burney's wife." 



CHAPTER X. 

HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 
M How many numbers is in Nouns ? Two ! " — Merry Wives, Act IV. Sc. 1. 

Our Saxon forefathers had as artistic a fabric of cases 
for their nouns as Greek grammarian ever recorded. It 
is true they did not quite rival the accuracy and exuberance 
with which the Algonquin languages of the North Amer- 
ican continent form almost as many cases as there can be 
relations of nouns in a sentence. Still, grammarians differ 
even now as to their number, and rarely admit less than six. 
It seems unfortunate enough that we should in our day, 
and in a living, actively thriving idiom, yet resort to the 
quaint artifices and the almost childish language of the 
ancients who knew no grammar. It was all very well 
for Peripatetics and Stoics to imagine an upright or direct 
line which was to represent the name of the object, the 
nominative, whilst a number of declining lines, (declen- 
sion,) approaching a horizontal line, were to represent the 
different relations of one noun to another. These falls, 
or direct and oblique cases, suggest nothing to our mind, 
and yet we are set to work, at an age when we are least 
likely to appreciate the illustration, to learn all the tech • 
nical terms of early Latin grammarians, and to burden our 
memory with numerous useless names. Surely, it is high 
time that a grammar should be written, English not only 
in name but in spirit. 

The more refined than useful system of Anglo-Saxon 
declensions shared the fate of all similar contrivances. It 
was tacitly and almost universally abandoned, as soon as 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 173 

another language came in contact with our own. As the 
Latin inflections were disregarded by the barbarous con- 
querors of Rome, so our Saxon declensions were summarily 
thrown overboard by our Norman masters. Their ear, 
familiar only with their own Norman sounds, was not easily 
enabled to catch the nice distinction of vowels and final 
consonants which constituted the many inflections of Saxon 
nouns. They were the masters, moreover, and with rude 
insolence used only so much of their subjects' speech as 
was absolutely necessary to make them fulfill their com- 
mands. It was the vassal's duty to guess and supply what 
might be wanting ; they cared not to take the trouble of 
learning the numerous varieties of form, which to them had 
neither life nor interest. Thus the language returned to an 
almost primitive simplicity, and for the delicate, hardly 
perceptible modifications of sound at the end of nouns 
which characterized the highly developed Saxon, were sub- 
stituted clear, unmistakable words, which were placed 
before them, prepositions and pronouns. 

This violence done the language of our fathers was all 
the more effective as it came at a time when, as the his- 
tory of all idioms teaches us, certain terminations are 
losing their precise characteristic sound, and with it their 
first clear meaning. They become then apparently, if not 
really, useless and inconvenient to the mass of the people. 
What was before the case with the foreigner, is now 
equally so with the native : they convey no longer any pre- 
cise idea to his mind, and awaken no interest in his heart. 
He first neglects, and, after a while, abandons them alto- 
gether. "Besides," says an unknown author quoted by 
Dean Trench, " in all languages there is a constant tend- 
ency to relieve themselves of that precision which chooses 
a fresh symbol for every shade of meaning, to lessen the 
amount of nice distinctions, and to detect, as it were, a 
royal road to the interchange of opinion." As the child 
learns to walk without leading-strings or other assistance, 



174 STUDIES m ENGLISH. 

so men begin to find that they can commune with each 
other without supplying all the little helps to understand- 
ing which were first required. *A hint now supplies an 
idea, and more is conveyed by suggestion than by fully ex- 
pressed words. The people gradually find out that they 
can do as well without a large number of grammatical 
forms, and therefore cease to employ them. This process 
is aided and accelerated by the general tendency to greater 
uniformity. It is true that this leads often to a loss of 
what had real, intrinsic value, and the greater simplicity, 
the higher mechanical perfection of an idiom, is but a 
sorry compensation for the means of setting forth in a 
more lively, if not a clearer manner, the inner feeling of 
the speaker. Still, such is the fate of languages, in which, 
as in all mechanical contrivances, every thing tends toward 
the one great end, — to obtain the greatest result by the 
smallest means. 

Our English, has, therefore, preserved but very few 
traces of the large number of inflections which trouble us 
so much in reading the sadly incorrect remnants of Anglo- 
Saxon literature. The dative plural, for instance, which 
always terminated in m, survives only in him (originally 
heom), them, whom, seldom, and whilom, which latter word, 
however, is now but rarely used, except for some special 
purpose. Spenser says yet in all sincerity and good earn- 
est,— 

" Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers 
There whilom wont the Templar knights abide." 

But when we meet with it in a connection like the fol- 
lowing : — 

" In Northern clime a valorous knight 
Did whilom kill his bear in fight 
And wound a fiddler," — Hudibras. 

we feel that the waggish poet has adopted it merely for its 
antiquated sound, and to render the verse more ludicrous. 
After it has thus continued to exist for a time, like some 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 175 

fossil among the alluvium of the language, with all its orig- 
inal characters unobliterated, it seems now to have been 
entirely worn out with old age. 

With these exceptions, nothing has come down to us of 
Anglo-Saxon declensions but a single termination, the s, 
by means of which we now form all our genitives. It is, 
moreover, the only sign of a case which we now possess. 
Even the old form of es in nouns which end in s, z, or x, 
seems to become burdensome, and, except in a few cases like 
" the foxes tail," we supply its place now by a simple apostro- 
phe, as in "Eblis' self" and "Tigris' shore." Shakespeare 
seems yet to have hesitated about it, for he says now " his 
mistress' eyebrow," and now " St. Jacques's pilgrim." The 
apostrophe we insert nowadays before this letter s as an ap- 
parent note of elision, has no such meaning, but is simply a 
modern expedient, a late refinement, to distinguish the gen- 
itive from the plural. What we have thus gained in uniform- 
ity we have lost in expressiveness ; we are now without the 
means to convey by the outward form of nouns any sug- 
gestion as to gender. It was not so of old, when every 
noun had a different declension according to its significa- 
tion ; the first effect of this tendency to abolish all such 
distinctions being noticeable in the days of Chaucer, who 
uses himself the first feminine genitive in es, in "The 
Prioresses Tale," 13383, and "with modres pitee," 13253. 

A similar fate has befallen the variety of forms by which 
our fathers endeavored to express the plural number. It 
is well known that this was in almost all languages accom- 
plished by the addition to the root of a word denoting 
multitude, folk, etc. Thus in Bengalese the very word loc, 
which means people, is added to all nouns to make a plural. 
The Hebrew, in like manner, took im, a multitude, and 
joined it to the singular in order to make it plural ; hence 
our English plural of Cherub and Seraph in "Cherubim 
and Seraphim continually do cry," where we use uncon- 
sciously a Hebrew declension. In other languages, as in 



176 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

the Chinese and some of the languages of the north- 
western Indians, the same end is attained by a mere repeti- 
tion of the word. Thus the Chinese say, tree-tree for our 
" trees," but this leaves it undecided whether several trees 
in their individuality are meant or a whole forest. The same 
mental process is familiar to most southern races, espe- 
cially the Italians, who endeavor to increase the force 
of a word by repeating it, as in their " bel bello " or " presto 
presto." A curious distinction exists in some languages, 
as in the Persian, between the plural of animate and that 
of inanimate objects, the one being made in an, the other 
in ha. 

The Anglo-Saxon, like all German dialects, had its 
strong nouns, that made their plural by a change of the 
radical vowel, and their weak nouns, that required the aid of 
an additional syllable for the same purpose. Of the former 
class but few remain in our day, such as the plurals mice, 
lice, feet, geese, men, and women ; for here, also, the Norman 
conquest made an end to the existing variety of forms. 
The illiterate masters, at least, did not catch the nice dis- 
tinctions of sound ; and where their ear really caught them, 
they were unwilling to take the trouble of committing 
them to memory. They found one very largely used ter- 
mination, the masculine form of -as ; this appeared simple, 
and was all the easier to them as it was so much like their 
own familiar s ; so they adopted it as their favorite end- 
ing for the plural, and soon, by the force of the principle 
of analogy, it extended to nearly all nouns. The process 
was aided by the many new words that were introduced, 
with which the Saxon forms did not blend readily, and 
thus all plurals were gradually made in s. The change 
was, of course, neither violent nor immediate. In our old- 
est documents, e. g., in the famous proclamation of Henry 
III. 1258, and in the first political songs, found in Wright's 
collection, the majority of nouns do not yet make their 
plural in s, but retain a variety of different forms from the 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 177 

Anglo-Saxon. The uniformity of our days begins only to 
show itself toward the end of the thirteenth and the first 
part of the fourteenth century. In " Piers Ploughman " it 
is fully established, with a few exceptions only in addition to 
those that exist now. This majority begins thus to rule 
just at the time when French words entered in large num- 
bers into English, at a period of which Harrison's Chroni- 
cle says that then " the English tongue grew into such 
contempt at Court, that most men thought it no small dis- 
honor to speak any English there ; which bravery took his 
hold at the last likewise in the country with every plough- 
man, that even the very carters begun to wax weary of 
their mother tongue and labored to speak French, which 
was then counted no small token of gentility." Even in 
the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century, 
there is no distinction made between s and es; Shelton has 
lyppes, buyldynges, princes, and lordes, hartes, and hartis ; 
and in Taylor's Works (1630) we find peares, plumbes, and 
greene beams. But soon after these writers the principle 
of adding a simple s to all nouns, except after sibilants, 
etc., was fully established, and since that time the once 
very popular additional e has become daily rarer. After 
sibilants we prefer, of course, es as an orthographical rem- 
edy, to avoid the meeting of so many hissing sounds, which 
already abound in the language beyond the rules of eu- 
phony. Thus we say churches, ages, foxes, glasses, and horses. 
But even th takes a simple s, one of the most difficult 
sounds for all foreigners, except only cloth, which makes 
clothes for dress or cloths the material. Mandeville says 
still, without such distinction, both " tentes made of clothes," 
and " clothed in clothes of gold." Nor is this the only in- 
stance of two plural forms for two different meanings of 
the same word ; for we have staffs for sticks, but staves for 
the official wand or the musical measure ; peas for the seed, 
and pease for the species. Peasen, which John Wallis tells 

us was still used in the seventeenth century, is now quite 
12 



178 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

obsolete. It is more curious, however, to observe that 
here the language has made a singular, which originally 
did not exist. The word was first peas, from the French 
" pois." Spenser says in his " Shepherd's Calendar " for 
the month of October : " Nought worth a peas ; " and Put- 
tenham has, — 

" Set shallow brooks to surging seas, 
An Oriental pearl to a white peas." 

Our singular pea is formed upon a misconception of 

peas being a plural, like the blunder of the good mayor of 

a town, who was so deeply impressed with his own dignity 

that he always spoke of a " claw of Parliament," and the 

poet Holmes's humorous expression of the " One-Hoss 

Shay." Many an ignorant countryman still uses Chinee as 

the singular of Chinese ; and Milton, in his " Paradise 

Lost," (III. 437,) sins in the opposite direction, when he 

says : — 

" But in his ways lights on the barren plains 
Of Sericana, where Chineses drive 
With sails and winds their carry wagons light." 

We say, finally, pennies for coin, and pence for their 
value, instead of the Old English pens, so liable to misap- 
prehension. Mandeville has, (p. 93,) — 

" There caste Judas the 30 pens before him." 

A few words of Anglo-Saxon origin, not content with 
the addition of s, change besides their final/ into v. This 
observance is not old, however, for the first instance known 
of it is the only one that occurs in Mandeville, where he says 
theves, instead of his ordinary plural, like hiyfes, lyfes, and 
wyfes. We say now lives, loaves, thieves, and wives, but we 
except all Norman-French words like chiefs, reliefs, briefs, 
and fiefs, save only beef, where the Latin " boves " probably 
led to the modern form of beeves. We except in like man- 
ner, for reasons not yet satisfactorily explained, words ter- 
minating in oof, rf and ff, and therefore do not change the 
/in roofs, dwarfs, and muffs, which, in contrast to the modern 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 179 

wharves, led an irate author to ask, "Why do we say 
wharves? Do we speak of the chieves of clans and the 
rooves of houses ? as if the ladies carried mufves to keep 
their dear little hands warm, or as if Tom Thumb was to 
be spoken of as big among the dwarves" If we preserve 
the f also in fifes, strifes, and safes, it is for the good reason 
that without such a mark we could not distinguish the first 
from fives (5), and the others from the similar forms of 
the verbs, he strives and he saves. 

Another peculiarity of our modern plural is the intro- 
duction of an additional e after the vowels y and o, to pro- 
tect the long vowel. This necessity seems to have been 
early felt, for Shakespeare already writes : — 

" In russet yeas and honest kersey noes." — Love's Labor 's Lost, V. 2. 
and — 

" All yon fiery oes and eyes of light." — Mids. NighVs Dream, III. 2. 

Hence we say now, flies, destinies, and soliloquies; but 
the necessity ceases where another vowel already precedes 
the above mentioned, and therefore their integrity is not 
threatened. This is the reason why we say valleys, keys, 
rays, boys, chimneys, and monkeys, for the use of vallies, mon- 
ies, and monkies is in reality incorrect spelling, from a want 
of attention to the principle which underlies these by no 
means arbitrary rules. For even in verbs the same law is 
observed, as may be seen in the difference between he de- 
nies and he delays. Thus we also say heroes, calicoes, and 
echoes, but, thanks to the additional vowel, folios and nuncios. 
The very exceptions which are occasionally quoted against 
the rule, the words ladies, sympathies, etc., find an easy and 
satisfactory explanation in the fact that their present form 
in y is modern, whilst formerly they were written with ie 
at the end. 

Our English, like most languages, limits the use of cer- 
tain nouns to one number alone, whenever the meaning 
suggests such a regulation. We use no singular of bellows, 



180 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

scissors, lungs, spectacles, whiskers, drawers, and small-clothes, 
because their duality instinctively requires and admits of 
nothing but a plural form. Others, again, are employed in 
a collective meaning, and then must needs be singular 
only ; such are sheep, deer, neat, horse, and swine, 2l usage 
which was probably strengthened by the fact that most of 
these words had no plural in Anglo-Saxon and even in Old 
English. Mandeville, at least, uses swyn, hors, and scheep 
for both numbers alike. This does not, of course, exclude 
their ordinary use ; and thus we find, in Levit. xi. 7, " and the 
swine though he divide the hoof;" and in Shakespeare, 
" pearl enough for a swine." In like manner are horse and 
foot used when they stand for infantry and cavalry, and sail 
in nautical language. A few of our nouns make a nice dis- 
tinction of meaning in the singular and the plural. Man- 
ner is a very different thing from manners, as when Ben 
Jonson already says, " wheresoever manners and fashions 
are corrupted." The practices of a lawyer are well to be 
distinguished from the practice he may have in cross- ques- 
tioning, as the mean or average income is not always within 
the means of everybody. A lad of good parts may take 
part in an enterprise ; and color has nothing to do with its 
plural, as " I must advance the colors of my love." — Mer- 
ry Wives, III. 4. A minute belongs to time, minutes are 
written down. The " Spectator " (454) says : " I writ down 
these minutes, 9 ' which shows the remarkable change this 
word has undergone since the days of Old English. Then 
it meant something very different, as may be seen from 
Wickliffe's Bible, St. Mark xii. 42, where he says, " But 
whanne a pore widowe was come, sche cast two mynutys, that 
is a farthing." From this meaning is derived the con- 
tracted form, mite, of our day, which has since held its 
place by the side of its richer brother minute, just as mart 
has its special meaning alongside of the fuller market. 

The only other plural termination of our English which 
claims attention by the side of the almost universal s is en, 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 181 

which seems to have given way more slowly than the other 
inflections. It begins to be rare in the fourteenth century, 
and Spenser uses it together with s, employing eyen when 
he wishes it to rhyme with pine, and eyes, when there is no 
such reason. In Sackville's " Mirror for Magistrates " we 
read, — 

u The wrathfull winter, proching on apace 
With blustering blasts has all ybarde the treen; " 

and in Fairfax's famous translation of Tasso, (XVII. 49,) 
which, to be sure, though later in date, follows Spenser 
very closely, we have, — 

11 While thus the Princess said, his hungry eine 
Adrastus fed on her sweet beauties' light." 

Housen, as well as hosen, was used, with other similar 
forms, as late as the seventeenth century, and in the 
" Gilderoy Ballad " of that age we find, — 

" Gilderoy was a bonnie boy 
Had roses tull his shoone, 
His stockings were of silken soy 
Wi' garters hanging doune," 

and in another place — 

" Oh sike twa charming een he had, 
A breath as sweet as rose.'* 

Slwon is, by the way, a comparatively modern form, fre- 
quently used by Shakespeare, very common as a provincial 
term in Cheshire and Leicestershire, and used by Byron in 
his " Childe Harold : " " He wore his sandal shoon" 

The south of England is especially fond of these older 
plurals, and abounds with pleasen (places), sloen, ckeesen, 
and peasen. Oxen is, of course, quite orthodox. Kine 
comes from the Anglo-Saxon word cu, which, being a strong 
noun, made its plural in cyen, although in Percy's " Relics " 
(IH. 120) it appears as kye simply. Macaulay indorses the 
word by saying ( " Hist, of England," V. 30) : " His stores 
of oatmeal were brought out, the kine were slaughtered." 

A double plural form, arising from the fact that here 



182 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

also the original inflection no longer conveyed to the 

people at large a precise meaning, occurs in many modern 

nouns. We say brethren from the strong plural brether, 

with the addition of en, and mean by it the same as by 

brothers, but use it only in strong and scriptural language 

instead of the latter. Thus in Byron, " Call not thy 

brothers brethren ! Call me not mother ! " Child made 

originally only childer, after the fashion of the Old Norse 

plural, preserved in German neuters. Percy's " Relics " 

(II. 94) has, — 

" It was no childer game." 

Now we add the ending en, and contract both into children. 

A few plural forms are now used with a singular mean- 
ing, — another evidence of the readiness with which in a 
changing language the first meaning of certain inflections 
is forgotten by the people. Our word kitten was originally 
the plural of kit, a diminutive made from cat, according to 
early Gothic usage, the c being changed into k to preserve 
its hard sound before the vowel i, just as we change candle 
into kindle. In like manner cock makes first chick, and 
then in the plural chicken, which we now use as a singular 
by the side of the former, for " a pretty chick," is still a 
common expression, and " the old gentleman had neither 
chick nor child," used by Warren, shows the former mean- 
ing. It was only about the time of Wallis, as he tells us 
himself, that chicken began to lose its plural meaning ; and 
we are told that in Sussex, to this day, the people would 
as soon think of saying oxens as chickens. 

Twin is the sole remnant in English of the old Saxon 
dual ; it is the same as our now unfashionable twain from 
twa. Few of us think of garden as a plural, and yet it 
belongs as such to gard or yard, as stocking is an ill-treated 
form of the genuine stocken, as used by Spenser, from the 
singular stock. Still less is it commonly known that the 
poetical word welkin, as in Milton's line, — 

" From either end of heav'n the welkin burns 
With feats of arms," 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. ' 183 

is the plural of a now obsolete word welc, the German 
Wolke, for which we now substitute cloud. In Archbishop 
Aelfric's Vocabulary, the oldest work of that description in 
the English language, we find, " nubes : wolc ; " but in the 
days of Shakespeare even, the plural had already an air of 
affectation. Hence the Clown in " Twelfth Night" (III. 1) 
says to Viola, " Who you are and what you would, are all 
out of my welkin. I might say, element ; but the word is 
overworn," where of course, welkin is intended to be even 
more " overworn." In another place, however, the poet 
says simply, " She is the weeping welkin, I the earth ; " now 
its use is confined to the phrase of " making the welkin 
ring." 

Nothing appears at first sight simpler than the plural 
men, made after the manner of strong nouns from man, and 
yet we find in it a curious historical illustration. Whilst we 
say regularly women, countrymen, and horseme?i, we employ 
Germans and Normans, not from any difference of origin 
or nature in these words, but because at the time when 
they entered the English through the French, the latter 
were no longer aware and conscious of their derivation 
from Ger or Wer-man and North-man, and hence treated 
the whole as a proper name. 

An apparent plural, also, is found in many English 
nouns, and has led to serious errors in some of the best 
of our grammars. Alms is so far from being an English 
plural, that it is rather a Greek singular ; for the biblical 
word iX€YjfjiO(Tvv7] was, by our Anglo-Saxon fathers, already 
contracted into almesse, as in Chaucer, — 

" This almesse shouldst thou do of thy proper things," 

and thence into the form now in use. ^Riches, on the con- 
trary, is the mutilated form of the French " richesse," and 
Ben Jonson is incorrect when he says, — 

" Riches are in fortune a greater good than wisdom is in nature," 

although now it has so completely usurped the force of a 



184 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

plural that to use it otherwise would appear singular. 
Bellows, from the old French " baleys;" has been more for- 
tunate, for, although frequently treated as a plural, Shakes- 
peare says, correctly, (" Pericles," I. 2,) " Flattery is the 
bellows blows up sin," and more recently Longfellow has, — 

" They watched the laboring bellows 
And as its panting ceased." 

Summons is, like alms, an ancient word, being the con- 
tracted " submoneas," a well-known legal term, made of 
the verb after the manner of " fieri facias," " habeas " " ca- 
pias," etc., and hence we can hardly approve of Waller's 

" Love's first summons 
Seldom are obeyed," 

though we ought to be thankful when we are not offended 
by the worse and vulgar, but by no means unfrequent, 
form " summonses." 

Among the doubtful words which even now are found 
used in both numbers, must be counted News, derived from 
" nouvelles ," and hence of old always a plural. Roger As- 
cham says, about 1550: "There are many news;" and 
Milton has, in his " Samson Agonistes " : " Suspense in 
news is torture, speak them out." But already Shakespeare 
showed both forms. In " Henry VI.," Part I. I. 4, he has : 
" Whither go these news ; " and in the same play, V. 3 : 
" This news." The latter is now probably the more gen- 
eral form, and we hear rarely otherwise than " This is good 
or bad news," or, as custom, in the words of Trinculo con- 
cerning necessity, makes words " acquainted with strange 
bedfellows," even " old news." Tidings are, we ought to 
say is, in the same predicament, for it also is used by 
Shakespeare now as a singular and now as a plural, though 
neither new nor tiding exist in English. 

A common error limits us in the use of hair to the sin- 
gular ; the plural has no less authority in its favor. " His 
hairs are gray," in the " Last Minstrel," and " These hairs of 
mine," in Byron, are not merely poetical licenses, for we 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 185 

have also " His [Cicero's] silver hairs will purchase us a 
good opinion." Wages and dregs, ashes and pains, belong 
to the same class of words. The few foreign plural forms 
which have still held their own in English are all the more 
interesting because they must have possessed peculiar 
strength to resist the influence of a language which has 
shown such unsurpassed power of receiving foreign ingre- 
dients, and of naturalizing and converting them from aliens 
into useful citizens. This seems a peculiarity not only of 
the Saxon tongue but of the Saxon race. The most strik- 
ing evidence of this quality may be seen in the truly mar- 
velous power of absorption which it shows especially in 
the Western States of North America. In the Union the 
German lays aside his Teutonic character, the Celt forgets 
his own feud, and sees his son assume the garb, the princi- 
ples, the very name of the Saxon. Here, most striking of 
all, the Jew even loses his ancient marks, because here 
alone, on the whole globe, he is not persecuted by the 
Saxon, and thus is stripped of that strength which is every- 
where else mainly derived from the ever-pressing necessity 
of resistance. 

We have French plurals, as in beaux, messieurs, and mes- 
dames, and Italian plurals in virtuosi, banditti, and conversa- 
zioni. The form of the plural is, moreover, frequently a 
sure sign of the naturalization of a foreign word. When 
we find that Holland makes " ideae," we may safely assume 
that it was to him yet a Greek word ; to us it is English, 
and we make ideas. Hammond has " dogmata " for our 
dogmas, though the former is still in use, together with mi- 
asmata and lemnata. Spenser makes, after Greek fashion, 
three syllables of heroes, where we have but two; and 
even the metrical accent alone betrays Pope's views on 
satellites, when he says, — 

"Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove." 
When we, in our day, use a foreign word as such, we 



186 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

give it the plural it had in its own tongue ; and thus we 
say errata, hypotheses, phenomena, appendices, vases, bases, 
formulce, larvce, magi, and data. Where we treat them as 
naturalized, they have an English plural, as waltzes and 
bandits. Many are, even now, in a transition state ; our 
railways have accustomed us to the use of " terminus " and 
many say, already, terminuses, while others still adhere to 
termini. In a few instances we meet with a foreign and 
an English plural in the same word, attributed to two dif- 
ferent meanings ; thus indexes are tables of contents, but 
indices only signs, and geniuses are men of genius, genii 
fabulous beings. 

Hardly less important than the consideration of case 
and number is the gender of nouns, although this feature 
seems to be fading away entirely from our language. In 
this disappearance of one of the most striking features lies 
a marked difference between ancient languages, and with 
them modern French, on one hand and English on the 
other. There the gender is permanently fixed and of par- 
amount importance, here it is barely perceptible and fre- 
quently changeable at will. 

The mature and severe character of our English fur- 
nishes a partial explanation of this remarkable restriction. 
An abundance of forms of gender, in fact the use of a 
transferred gender altogether, belongs exclusively to two 
classes of nations. They are either still so young as to as- 
cribe, from ignorance and the abundance of their own life, 
a sex to lifeless objects, as men do in their infancy ; or 
they are, even in maturity, endowed with such activity of 
fancy that they live rather in an imaginary than in the 
real world. The former find their representative in some 
of the Algonquin tribes, the latter in the German. The 
English, as a people, are no longer children, nor are they 
endowed with unnatural liveliness of imagination. Hence 
they have abandoned gender as they have approached ma- 
turity. For when the quick fancy of childlike nations 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 187 

gradually shrinks back into its legitimate dimensions, and 
the cooler judgment of fuller knowledge assumes the con- 
trol, the artificial gender is everywhere seen to disappear 
by itself or to be discarded as a useless incumbrance. The 
sensuous element loses its influence, and the power of ab- 
straction asserts its claims more and more. This does not, 
by any means, exclude the legitimate use of fancy as one 
of the powers of the national mind reflected in the lan- 
guage. Even in English, although we have nearly aban- 
doned the idea of gender altogether, we are by no means 
without numerous instances of qualities, limbs, or even 
agencies, which we daily attribute to lifeless things, espe- 
cially to features in the landscape that surrounds us. A 
chair has its legs, a hill a foot, a mountain a shoulder, a 
head, and a crest, it may even boast of one or several 
spurs. The needle has an eye, and a sofa two arms ; a 
saw has its teeth, which it shares with a comb, and a bottle 
a neck ; the waves have a breast, the ships their ribs, and 
even cabbage has a head. In like manner we ascribe 
functions of various kinds to mere helpless instruments, 
and give them names accordingly. Thus we speak of mon- 
keys, hydraulic rams, and chevaux-de-frise. We cut figures 
and letters in the living rock ; the earth breathes ; and mer- 
cury is to our eye quicksilver. The hungry ocean demands 
its victims, and the thirsty earth eagerly drinks in the wel- 
come rain. A lane may be a blind alley, and a trial of 
swiftness often ends in a dead heat. What would our poetry 
be without such license and such play of fancy, and how 
could we, without it, appreciate the beauty of the Psalmist, 
who makes the hills clap their hands, and the valleys laugh 
and sing ? 

Notwithstanding this, our English surpasses in the sim- 
plicity of gender all other languages, and has established 
its claim to be considered the most philosophic among 
idioms. It has, alone, succeeded in freeing itself perfectly 
of all control in point of gender by the mere form of 



188 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

words, and with it of a genuine incumbrance of speech. 
For the three personal genders of words conduce neither 
to perspicuity nor to energy ; the distinction must needs be 
a purely artificial one, a mere fiction, in a large number of 
words, that is in all that express inanimate objects, having 
no real ground in the nature of things. Now our English 
is a practical, business-like language ; it is not imaginative, 
like its German sister. It rejects, therefore, all mere me- 
chanical attributes of gender, without abandoning in any 
way its clear right to ascribe sex to lifeless objects for 
special purposes. By means of thus discarding gender as 
a common rule, it has gained for its poets and orators the 
right of personifying abstract ideas and giving life to inan- 
imate objects. Making a sparing use of this power to in- 
vest them, for the moment, with a gender, they present 
them far more vividly and impressively to our imagination 
than can be done in any other language. How graphic 
and striking is, for instance, the following description of 
law, by the aid of this power of our language : " Of law 
no less can be acknowledged than that her seat is the 
bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All 
things in heaven and earth do her homage ; the very least 
as feeling her care, and the greatest as not excepted from 
her power." Substitute here its for her, and the beauty and 
force of the sentence are seriously impaired. 

This manner of giving gender is far more rational, as 
will be seen from the simple fact that almost every nation 
has its own peculiar notions connected with the sex to be 
attributed to certain lifeless objects. Now mythology sug- 
gests one, now history another. This is the case, among 
many others, with the words sun and moon. To Greek 
and Roman the former was masculine, represented by 
Phoebus or Sol, and the latter feminine, as Diana or Luna. 
Euripides, on one occasion, calls them father and mother ; 
and Virgil makes them brother and sister : — 

" Necfratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna." — Georg. I. 396. 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 189 

In Hebrew, Sanscrit, and German, the result is reversed, 
the sun becoming feminine, the moon masculine ; in mod- 
ern Russian the former loses its sex altogether, and becomes 
neuter. The German notion is based upon Northern my- 
thology, as we learn from the prose Edda : " Mundilfora 
had two children : a son, Mani, and a daughter, Sol, and 
she became the wife of Tuisco." This influence deter- 
mined the gender of the two words in Anglo-Saxon and 
Old English. In a Saxon treatise on the equinox we find : 
* The moon has no light but of the sun, and he is of all 
stars the lowest;" and in one of the Cott. MSS., Tit. A, 
3. p. 63, we have : " When the sun goeth at evening un- 
der the earth, then is the earth's breadth between us and 
the sun, so that we have not her light, till she rises up at 
the other end." But when the classic languages began 
to make their influence felt, first through the Norman- 
French and afterwards directly, the present gender, taken 
from ancient mythology, established itself. This is, how- 
ever, rare yet before Shakespeare, and even he calls (" Hen- 
ry IV." I. 2.) " the blessed sun a fair hot wench in flame- 
color'd taffata." Now, when we speak philosophically, we 
designate sun and moon by it, as already Mandeville ven- 
tured to do, saying, " God loveth it more than any other 
thing." When we treat them poetically, they are he and 
she to us, as in Milton : — 

" As when the sun, new risen, 
Looks through the misty, horizontal air 
Shorn of his beams ; " 

and in Pope's Homer : — 

" As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, 
O'er heaven's clear azure shed her sacred light." 

In this aspect the English differs from all other lan- 
guages. The old Greek had its masculine and feminine, 
and by their side the ouSerc/ooi/, our neuter, but originally 
meaning simply neither the one nor the other. In similar 
manner we find the North American Indians speak of a third 



190 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

gender, as eunuch, because they look upon it in the light 
of a weakened masculine. The Mongolian idioms know no 
difference of gender. The Romance languages include the 
neuter of the Latin in their masculine, except in article and 
pronoun. The Danish has one common gender for mascu- 
line and feminine, which it calls the personal gender, and 
another, in its nature neuter, which it calls impersonal. 
The German alone has preserved all three genders, both 
in inflection and in article. The English, on the other 
hand, shows no difference of gender at all except in one 
single form, the personal pronoun. 

Saxon words lost their gender with their termination. 
In Anglo-Saxon most final vowels and some consonants 
were attributed to one or the other gender ; but already in 
Old English all these vowel-endings were represented by a 
uniform e, — e. g. Anglo-Saxon, nama, ende, and wudu ; Old 
English, name, ende, wode. At a still later period even 
this e, already mute, was generally laid aside, and with it 
the last visible means by which outwardly to distinguish 
gender. 

Foreign words lost their gender in the process of natu- 
ralization. As they underwent this, they often became so 
obscured that the precise original meaning was no longer 
sufficiently clear to determine the gender. Where this was 
not the case, their form at least was so changed that they, 
like the Saxon words, lost the gender with the termina- 
tion. We find, upon closer examination of Latin words, 
that wherever the nominative disguised the true root of 
the noun, the English has not adopted that case, but an 
oblique case, in which the true and full root makes itself 
felt. Thus we find we have adopted, 

not comes, but comitem, and hence our (comte) count. 



a 


margo " marginem 


u 


margin. 


a 


frons *' front em 


M 


front. 


If 


cohors " cohortem 


u 


(cohort) court. 


u 


flos " florem 


tf 


flower. 


(( 


actio " actionem 


u 


action. 


a 


vox " vocem 


(( 


voice. 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 191 

In these new forms there is no trace left of the ancient 
gender as determined by the Latin rules. Besides, such 
words as have come to us, not from the Latin directly, but 
through the French, had often there already changed the 
gender and thus increased the confusion. 

Whatever gender, therefore, can be found in modern 
English, is exclusively artificial. By the common consent 
of the people it is attributed to some words ; where neces- 
sity calls for a designation of a sex, it is made for the 
purpose, but without ever becoming inherent. A gender 
merely attributed is of course neither permanently fixed 
nor absolutely decided. We say of time that it is out, 
and the poet says that 

" Time maintains his wonted pace," 

as soon as he ascribes human powers or qualities to time. 
The philosopher tells us of thunder, that " it arises when 
the air is surcharged with electricity ; " and the poet 
again, personifying it, says, 

" the thunder. 
Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, 
Perhaps has spent his shafts." — Paradise Lost, I. 174. 

Love, even, is sometimes calmly defined, and we are told 
that " it is one of the affections ; " but poets, following, prob- 
ably, the example of classic writers, think of the god Amor, 
and thus say : 

" Love in my bosom like a bee 
Doth suck his sweet; 
Now with his wings he plays with me, 

Now with his feet." — Lodge's Rosalindas Madrigal. 

A beautiful use of attributed gender occurs in connec- 
tion with the word night, in the Book of Wisdom, xviii. 
14: " While all things were in quiet silence and that night 
was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty word 
leaped down from heaven, out of thy royal throne, like a 
fierce man of war, into a land of destruction." We fancy 
we can listen to the soft and silent step of night in her 



192 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

swift course, while the word, almighty, leaps in his power 
down from heaven. What language, with a permanently 
fixed gender, could have produced so powerful an impres- 
sion by such simple means ? 

The ways by which in English a distinction of sex is 
represented externally in words are as various as they are 
numerous, some agreeing with those employed in most lan- 
guages, others quite peculiar to our own. Not unfre- 
quently we possess two distinct words for the masculine 
and the feminine of the same being. We have man and 
woman, the ancient wifman, to which the German in its 
abundance adds a neuter form, Weibsbild, used only in con- 
tempt. We might add father and mother, son and daughter, 
brother and sister, king and queen, nephew and niece, lad and 
lass, sloven and slut, wizard and witch. The same applies 
to animals, wliere we meet with ram and ewe, horse and 
mare, cock and hen, milter and spawner, drone and bee. In 
a few cases here a third gender, a neuter, is developed to 
designate the young, in whom the sex does not matter as 
yet, and thus we obtain bull, cow, and calf, dog, bitch, and 
whelp. There seems to be a tendency in modern English 
to make this distinction in gender much nicer and more 
careful. Thus we find that shrew was formerly applied to 
males as well as to females, while we, ungallantly, confine 
it to the latter. Lover, on the other hand, and paramour, 
now only used of men, were formerly used of both sexes. 
Smollett's " Count Fathom," published in 1754, says still : 
" These were alarming symptoms to a lover of her delicacy 
and pride." Something of the old freedom survives in our 
" pair of lovers," or " they were lovers." 

Sometimes the expression of sex is accomplished by the 
addition of certain syllables, such as have been explained 
in a different connection. The Saxon er gives us mascu- 
lines, the Latin-French ess feminines. Where one and the 
same form has to serve for both genders, great want of 
clearness and often confusion is the necessary consequence. 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 193 

Dancer and singer, rival, cousin, witness, parent, student, and 
many others, lead to that difficulty which Crabbe in his 
" Lover's Journey " points out : — 

" Gone to a friend, she tells me — I commend 
Her purpose, — means she to a female friend? " 

Quite peculiar to English is the use made of personal 
pronouns for this purpose, but its extreme awkwardness 
has led to its gradual abandonment. In older authors it is 
quite frequent. Fuller, in his " Comment on Ruth," (104,) 
speaks of a shee-saint, and elsewhere of she-devils. Shakes- 
peare, jocosely, in his "Merry Wives of Windsor," says: 
" Be brief my good she-Mercury" The " Spectator " does 
not disdain using she-knighterrant and she-Machiavels. 
Byron goes even further, and ventures upon " on their she- 
parades," and " the real sufferings of their she-condition" 
A he-friend would seem to be a most objectionable expres- 
sion, and yet it occurs not unfrequently ; with animals the 
result is less unpleasant, and we can pass a he- and a she- 
goat, a he- and a she-bear, etc. Generally, however, better 
words exist for this very clumsy contrivance, which is now 
no longer found in careful writers. 

The increasing influence of the German has led to the 
adoption of a system which is there very common, — the ad- 
dition of a word, which, in itself, expresses clearly sex or 
gender. Isaac Disraeli was probably the first who intro- 
duced, from the Dutch, the word fatherland for native soil ; 
the experiment succeeded, it was adopted by Byron and 
Southey, and the word has now obtained citizenship. Then 
followed mother-tongue and kindred compounds ; besides 
these we speak of mankind and womankind, man- and maid- 
servant, beggar-man and -woman, bondman and bond-maiden, 
gentleman and gentlewoman, even of a man-milliner, and, 
upon the authority of the " Tatler," (226,) of a man-mid- 
wife. Then we have landlord and landlady, ladybird and 
lady clock (the coccinea septempunctata). Among animals 
names are favorite means to mark the sex, besides the 
13 



194 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

wards taken from their own order, as cockrobin, cockchafer, 

cock- and hen-sparrow, peacock and hen, roebuck and doe, 

buck-rabbit and doe, buck-hare, boar-ca^, buck-goat, buck-co- 

ney, and, in Halliwell, even dog-bee. A dog-fox and a 

bitch-fox are well known to hunters ; and Moore in his 

Suffolk words tells us quaintly that — 

" Cock robin and Titty wren 
Are the Almighty's cock and hen." 

The employment of proper names extends, of course, only 
to the usage among the people at large, in familiar language 
and provincial dialects. The common people dislike, in all 
cases, the abstraction of the neuter gender, which requires, 
as it were, a mental effort on their part, for which they 
have little relish ; hence to them every thing in Nature is 
he or she, and this tendency has led them to give proper 
names even to lifeless objects. Among men they have 
a Tomboy, a Tomfool and his tomfoolery, and Tom Thumb ; 
Tbmcats and Tabby cats are familiar terms. Tomtit and 
Jenny wren among birds, and Tom and Jenny simply, to 
designate male and female swans, are quite vernacular on 
the Thames. Robert, or the more familiar Dobbin, serves, we 
know not why, very generally for horses, and for our friend, 
Bob Robin or Bob Redbreast. In Suffolk we hear much 
of Harry Longlegs or Father Longlegs for spiders, and of 
King Harry foi the goldfinch. Edward appears only as 
Neddy for the patient donkey, and Will for the sea-gull, 
or as Billy goat coupled with Nanny goat. Michael reap- 
pears as Hedge Mike for sparrow ; Gilbert, as Gib, is com- 
mon in Northamptonshire, and used by Shakespeare in 
"Henry IV.": — 

" I am as melancholy as a gib cat; " 

and St. Martin has given his name to the swift martins. 
Of all names, however, the most frequent in these combi- 
nations is, as might be expected, John, or, more familiarly, 
Jack. We have, in our own order, Jac/c-of-all-trades, Jack- 
a-lantern, Jack-aAent (a dolt), Jackass, Jackanapes, Jack- 



HOW NOUNS ARE USED. 195 

pudding (a clown,) Jack-tar, and John-a-dream. Jackass-, be- 
longing to our friend Neddy technically, a jack-hare, and a 
jack-rabbit among quadrupeds ; jack simply, a ^'ac^-pike, 
and ajohndory among fishes ; and a jack-heron, ^ac^-snipe 
andyac£-curlew among birds. The centipede is more com- 
monly known as e/bc^-with-many-feet ; and even among 
plants we meet with <7ac&-i'-the-Bush, or e/o^ft-behind-the- 
garden-gate. A still more remarkable use of these names 
is their attachment to lifeless objects, which gives us jack- 
boot, jack-chain, and a roasting^ac^, the companion to a 
spinning-^'m^y. The feminine is not so well represented 
in this class ; we find, however, Jenny wren, occasionally 
Jenny ass by the side of Jack ass, and the hated centipede 
once more familiarized as Jenny-sninner or Jenny-nettles 
in Lanark, as Maggy Monyfeet in Scotland. Then we 
have Poll parrots, Magpies, the " Margots " of the French, 
(from Margaret,) and Madge or Madgehowlet for a small 
owl. In Norfolk, and probably elsewhere, the five fingers 
are humorously endowed with proper names, as Tom 
Thumbkin, Will Wilkin, Long Gracious, Betty Bodkin, and 
Little Tit. 

Quite a curious usage belonging to this class of expres- 
sions is the tendency to add horse to other words, in order 
to indicate their strength, large size, or coarseness, as in 
horse-radish, horse- walnut and -chestnut, in horse-emmet, 
horse-leech, horse-muscle and horse-crab, until it is trans- 
ferred even to a horse-laugh and a ^orse-medicine. The 
gigantic size and defiant attitude of the largest rush has 
procured for it the name of Wrush, but it is not quite 
as clear why another plant of almost equal dimensions 
should have to be contented with the name of cow-cabbage. 



CHAPTER XL 

HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 

" Sunt fata verbis.' ' 

As we have seen that words consist, like ourselves, of 
a body and a soul, the outward form and the inner mean- 
ing, there is, of course, also a double history connected 
with these two parts. The form, being dependent on the 
uttered sound or its written sign, is subject to a number 
of external influences ; and the meaning given it by a na- 
tion which passes through its childhood, youth, manhood 
and old age, will naturally in like manner, undergo various 
changes, keeping pace with the changes in thought and 
feeling of the mass of the people. In many cases these 
modifications amount to so little, perhaps only to a slightly 
altered spelling, a contraction or a widening of sound, that 
we pass it by as a necessary and natural effect of the influ- 
ence of time. In other cases, however, violence has appar- 
ently been done to words : their form has been twisted, 
their dimensions have been curtailed, or their meaning has 
been so completely changed, that it requires diligent search 
and careful comparison to establish the identity of the orig- 
inal form with its modern descendants. Such cases are, 
if not always interesting, yet rarely otherwise than instruc- 
tive ; they give evidence of what might be fairly called the 
inner life of a language, and as the English language pre- 
sents some of the most remarkable changes of this kind, it 
may not be amiss to look into the history of some at least 
with greater care. 

A large and important number of words in English have 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 197 

undergone a serious contraction either from misapprehen- 
sion of their original form or from sheer caprice and abuse. 
This applies most naturally, perhaps, to French words in- 
troduced at various periods, and used by persons not famil- 
iar with the idiom from which they were borrowed. There 
has been no period in England's history when her French 
scholars have not been more or less in the predicament 
of the nun whom old Dan Chaucer introduces to us so 
quaintly as, — 

" A Nonne, a Prioresse, 

That of hire smiling was ful simple and coy . . . 

And frenche she spake ful fayre and fetishly 

After the schole of Stratford atte Bowe, 

For frenche of Paris was to her unknowe." 

Cant. Tales, 118. 

What with mispronouncing first and misspelling after- 
wards, French words soon lost their native graces and be- 
came unmeaning in English. Thus pierre (stone) became 
pier ; peluche, plush ; gueule, jpwl or jole ; chassis, sash; 
issuer (exire), issue and sewer ; vestiaire (vestiarium), vestry ; 
chauffer, chafe and. chaff; fatigue, simple fag ; and blaspheme, 
either blaspheme or blame. Feuille was Anglicized mto foil, 
tuile into tile. Linon was made lawn ; volee, volley ; and tri- 
omphe was already in the days of Norman rule reduced to 
trump and trump cards. Baluster, from the French balustre, 
is now universally called and spelt banister, tourniquet is 
shortened into turnkey, and pele-mele into pell-mell, if not 
even into PaU Mall. 

This is, after all, but the common fate of foreign words, 
ill understood and hence ill pronounced. The same pro- 
cess changed the mystic words of our religion, Hoc est cor- 
pus, into vulgar hocus pocus ; the Latin hilariter et celer- 
iter into helter skelter ; postumus into a fabulous posthumous ; 
the Spanish cigara into anomalous segar ; and carnelian, 
from its resemblance to the color of flesh, (caro, carnis,) 
into cornelian. 

Where the French has furnished us with special or tech- 



198 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

nical terms, and these have undergone similar changes, the 
derivation is of course not always quite so clear, and must 
be accepted with some caution. Tennis comes to us, we 
know well, from the exclamation Tenez! used at hitting, 
as Tally ho ! is the naturalized form of the Au Taillis ! of 
the French. Whether omelet really represents the ceufs 
meles of the French is more doubtful ; and jeopardy has 
more than one pedigree, that of " jeu perdu " or " jeu parti," 
the game is gone, being the most probable, from the fol- 
lowing lines of Chaucer : — 

' * And when he through his madness and folie 
Hath lost his owen good thurgh jupartie 
Then he exciteth other folk thereto." 

Many French terms have been much disguised by the 

simple loss of an initial e, frequently, no doubt, caused by 

an indistinct impression of its being an article. Thus we 

have proof from epreuve, tin from etain, scum from ecume, 

pin from epingle, and escheat as well as cheat. Etiquette has 

become a ticket, and the old French word estrange retains 

its double form, as in 

" How comes it my husband oh ! 
How comes it, 
That thou art thus estranged from thyself? " 

and 

" Thyself I call it, being strange to me." — Shakespeare. 

The same errors which in olden times caused so much 
injury are committed by the ignorant in our own day with 
French words that are now creeping into English, and 
there is good reason for us to pray still, with our Saxon 
ancestors of yore in their Litany, " A furore normannorum 
libera nos Domine ! " 

There is perhaps more excuse for the contractions which 
Latin and other foreign words have undergone in the pro- 
cess of naturalization. That aOavaaca and 7ravaK€ta should 
have shrunk and shriveled into tansy and pansy is cer- 
tainly quite pardonable, though it would be very difficult 
now to trace the gradual change from step to step. We 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 199 

know better how proxy came from procuracy, as proctor 
from procurator, and palsy from paralysis, as we still retain 
both the full and the shortened form. The French " fan- 
taisie," or the Greek original, gave us phantasy, which in 
Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas is already " phantsy," 
and thus shows clearly the gradual subsiding into modern 
fancy. When Hollingshed says of brandy " it lighteneth 
the mind, it quickeneth the spirits, it cureth the hydropsy" 
he gives us the ancestor of our shortened dropsy. A curi- 
ous derivation is that of quinsy, which is in reality the same 
word as " synagogue," coming like the latter from avv and 
ayw, to draw together, which became afterwards " synanche." 
In Holland's Pliny, x. 33, we find : " The young birds of 
these martins, if they be burnt into ashes, are a singular and 
sovereign remedy for the deadly squinancie ; " whilst Jeremy 
Taylor, in his " Holy Living and Dying," has : " Without rev- 
elation we can not tell whether we shall eat to-morrow or 
whether a squinancy shall choke us." Furlong is of course 
but a " furrow long," as syrup and shrub are the same. 
Cadet is from capitellum, as it were, a little captain, as 
cousin is from consanguineus, through the French cousin, 
familiarly contracted further into cozzen. Grant comes in 
like manner from garantie, whence also our warrant ; and 
the law terms livery and seizin are nothing but our ordinary 
delivery and possession. 

The same unfortunate tendency to save breath and time 
has led to a worse treatment of another class of words, 
which have not been merely contracted but actually de- 
prived of a part of their substance. The instances in 
which proper names have suffered thus are best known. 
Great and noble names have been corrupted to mean and 
base uses. There is said to be a family in existence now, 
lineal descendants of the Plantagenets, who have degen- 
erated into Plant. Everybody has heard how Admiral 
Vernon, in 1739, first ordered spirits mixed with water to 
be dealt out to his sailors, and how, being commonly dressed 



200 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

in a stuff largely used in the West India islands and known 
as grogram, he first earned that nickname for himself, and 
then bestowed it, in its shortened form of grog, upon his un- 
popular beverage. Tram roads may possibly recall to us 
the full name of their inventor, Outram, though the word 
is said to occur already some time before his day ; and gin is 
perhaps the first part of Geneva, where the best drink of 
the kind was distilled in former days, as it is now in Hol- 
land, which gives us the name of Hollands. St. Mary over 
the River, has thus dwindled into St. Mary Overy, as poor 
Magdalen, the repentant sinner with her abundant tears, 
has gone, through the abbreviated form of Maud, finally 
into maudlin. 

The process is, however, by no means limited to proper 
names, and is still going on, in our day, in numerous com- 
mon nouns, although here also foreign nouns have naturally 
suffered most. This is all the more to be regretted as the 
loss of a part of the form almost unavoidably involves the 
loss of a part of the meaning, and in language, as in society, 
half words are the perdition of women, and not only of 
women but of all who employ them. The very reckless- 
ness of the changes which Addison so humorously attributes 
to the " English delight in silence " and their tendency " to 
favor their natural taciturnity and to give as quick a birth 
to their conceptions as possible," is remarkable, for it seems 
to be a mere chance whether the first or the last part of a 
word is to be sacrificed. The former is the case in words 
like omnibus and bus, or caravan and van, which are fast 
becoming legitimate, the latter in cabriolet, citizen, and gen- 
tleman, which are as rapidly subsiding into cab, cit, sm&gent. 
Thus the simple aid was once the aide-de-camp of official 
language, and plot used to appear in full dress as complot. 
Mob, from the " mobile vulgus," belonging to the age of 
Charles II. and first applied, as Lord North says, to 
members of the Green Ribbon Club, together with sham, 
Macaulay very justly called " remarkable memorials of a 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 201 

season of tumult and imposture," though the connection 
with Whigs and Tories at which he points has not yet 
been fully established. We can see, however, how slowly 
admission is gained to the body of orthodox English words, 
from the hesitating way in which Addison speaks in the 
" Spectator " of mob and incog : " As all ridiculous words 
make their first entry into a language by familiar phrases, 
I dare not answer for these, that they will not in time be 
looked upon as a part of our tongue." His apprehensions 
have been fulfilled with regard to mob, though incog can 
hardly be considered yet as authorized by classic writers. 
The same process of curtailment has reduced the buffalo 
of the American continent, perhaps through the French 
"buffle," to the simple buff, now the color of tanned 
leather. The Latin " erinaceus " shows a curious process 
of gradual reduction. It became in French " herisson," 
which Mandeville already Anglicized into urchoune; then 
it became Chaucer's urchon, and thus finally our own ur- 
chin. Another animal thus ill treated is the young of the 
frog and the toad, which was once ceremoniously " toad- 
pullet," and has now sunk into tadpole. Phiz is a very early 
abbreviation of the awkwardly long physiognomy, as prim- 
itive manners are now more frequently called prim. A 
navvy, whose labors on countless canals and in the Crimea 
have earned for him a world's respect, is but the half of a 
" navigator ; " a wig, the sad remnant of the stately periwig, 
the French word perruque, first made Dutch in the quaint 
form ofparruik. The handiwork, or x^P Zpyov, of the early 
leech gave rise to the unintelligible "cfo'rurgeon," whom we 
now simply call a surgeon ; his hospital has likewise been 
shorn, and is now often spital only, as in SpitalRelds and 
Spital Inn, an asylum on the wildest parts of Stainmore 
Fells, erected there, as in other waste parts of the kingdom, 
to serve as a traveler's refuge. Slang terms of this kind 
abound in all directions ; of the more admissible among 
them Dickens's " whenever I saw a beadle in full jig" 



202 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

refers, of course, to Jigure, as " to go " or " to live on tick," 
has reference to the ticket received at the pawnbroker's, 
from which is derived the old phrase " on tick and on bill." 
Flirt is not unlikely a mutilated form of the French Jleu- 
rette, which an ingenious writer in " Notes and Queries " com- 
pares to the Greek rose, of which Aristophanes in the 
" Clouds ' 9 says, poSa //,' ctp^xas, the exact counterpart of the 
French, vous mUnventez des fleurettes. 

One of the most interesting features connected with this 
maltreatment of certain classes of words, is the quaint and 
often exceedingly amusing manner in which the people at 
large have endeavored to make foreign words more easy of 
understanding by twisting them into some resemblance of 
English words. This tendency ought to serve us as a warn- 
ing against the too free adoption of foreign words, the form 
and meaning of which have often not the slightest analogy 
to our own. This must needs produce a certain confusion, 
especially in the minds of the uneducated ; and where this 
is not the case, there will still remain, for the masses at least, 
little more than a conventional meaning, an empty and un- 
real signification. What is a Pantheon to us, who believe 
either in one God or none at all, that we should place it 
in the midst of our towns, by the side of Christian churches ? 
If we attend a debating club at a Colosseum, we must pre- 
pare ourselves to meet colossi only in their own estimation ; 
and wolves, it is to be hoped, have long since ceased to be 
found in our Lyceums, as long since as Minerva, we fear, 
has abandoned our Athenceums. The French are precisely 
in the same predicament ; there is something irresistibly 
ludicrous to an Englishman in their advertisements of a 
boulingrin vert before a country-house, or of rosbifs de mou- 
ton in their eating-houses, terms of which already Yoltaire 
felt keenly the ridicule. So do their modern Panorama 
Universel, their feux pyriques, and above all the guerre 
polemique of the clever Ste. Beuve incur the sharp but well- 
deserved criticism of their distinguished philologist Nodier. 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 203 

These difficulties are peculiarly great, and the bad results 
make themselves more immediately felt in the case of 
French words imported into our tongue, because the French 
language has itself, long ago, lost all consciousness of its 
own history. What Frenchman thinks nowadays of the 
Latin vir, when he speaks of vertu, of sus Troja in his truie, 
of jecus Jicatum in foie, or of Gehenna in his verb gener ? 
If this be so in France, how much more obscure must such 
words become when they are transferred to another tongue ! 
Everybody knows our dandelion, or dandy lion, as it was 
recently printed in a book for the " instruction of youth." 
Its derivation from dent de lion is evident. The fair 
apple of France there known as belle et bonne, is vul- 
garized into belly-bound; the beautiful rose des quatre 
saisons into one of quarter sessions, whilst the polianthes 
tuberosa, in French tubereuse, which was nothing more 
than a tuberous plant, is forced into a tuberose. The ad- 
mirable chaussees of the Empire are in England cause- 
ways ; their ancien, the "Ancient Cassio " of Shakespeare, 
our ensign ; and their frere-magon, we hardly know how, 
with us a freemason. Their contre danse, so called from 
the couples dancing opposite each other, has become a 
country-dance, and the hautbois, that serves in the or- 
chestra, by a ludicrous association with a boy, a hautboy. 
Animals have not fared any better : the langouste of the 
French coast is on English shores a longoyster ; the hog- 
fish, or porcpisce of Spenser, becomes a porpoise ; and the 
ecrevisse of our French neighbors had to go through a 
series of transformations in three languages before it reached 
its present form. It started from the Old High German 
krebiz, which reappeared subsequently in English as crab, 
and in German as Krebs. In the latter form it crossed 
the Rhine, and became in its new home ecrevisse ; it re- 
turned from there once more to its German kindred in 
England, appearing as hrevys in Lydgate, as crevish in 
Gascoyne, as craifish in Holland, and merging finally, with 



204 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

a double effort at Anglicizing the foreign word into the 
modern English crawfish or crayfish. 

Another word that has been a sore temptation to hasty 
etymologists is the recently revived word filibuster, which 
has in a similar manner returned, much reduced in form, 
like the prodigal son, from foreign lands. It was originally 
the English word fly-boat ; but when adopted by the Span- 
iards, was softened by them into " filibote " or " rn'bote." 
Subsequently it found its way back into English, and the 
outlandish form was by an off-hand etymology changed into 
filibuster, with some reference, perhaps, to the American 
slang term, a buster. 

The sleeping mouse, or souris dormeuse, is, in like 
manner, but, very naturally, transformed into a dormouse ; 
the farci of French cooks into forced meat; and their quel- 
que chose into our kickshaw, unless there should be some 
unknown relation existing between the latter part of the 
word and oar pshaw. In a somewhat similar manner the 
French quand-aurai-je became our quandary. The transi- 
tion from the redingote to a riding-coat, is as amusing as 
that from the ancient vertugale or still older vertugadin to 
a farthingale, a word made after the analogy of nightingale. 
The French rope-dancer's soubresault, from Latin supersaltus 
and Italian sobresalto, was already in Old English sumber- 
sault, and thus became with a double association of ideas 
our summerset. Beaumont and Fletcher, in the " Tamer 
Tamed," have still, — 

" What a somersalt. 
When the chair fel, she fetch'd, with her heels upward ! " 

but in the " Fair Maid of the Inn " it is already changed : — 

11 Now I will only make him break his neck in doing a somerset, and 
that 's all the revenge I mean to take of him." 

Where the French saw with the eye of superstition a hand 
of several fingers, a main de gloire, we discover a like- 
ness to a man's two legs, and call the same root mandragora, 
or mandrake. Equally ludicrous is the change from the 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 205 

rightly spelt Oyez I of our courts to the ordinary pro- 
nunciation, Yes! and the way in which the men who 
were stationed by the king's buvet (from boire, anciently 
bnver) to take care of his sideboard and costly wines, and 
who in England waited at the buffet, a table near the 
door of the dining-hall, with viands for the poor, became 
first buffetiers and then vulgarly known as beef-eaters. 
Even phrases can be traced to such violent twistings of 
words, as the proverbial dormir comme une taupe, which 
has lost all reference to the mole, and is now to sleep like a 
top, and the faire tin faux pas, to commit a blunder, which 
is at least provincially to make a fox's paw ! How not only 
a strange form but a whole story may arise from such an 
ill-treated word has been very amusingly established by 
Mr. Eiley in his learned work on the Guildhall in London. 
He tells, in the Preface, that in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries trading was in London called achat, from the 
French acheter. This foreign word was commonly pro- 
nounced acat, and came soon to be written so. To acat 
of this kind the famous lord mayor, Whittington, was in- 
debted for his wealth, but when the word became unfamiliar, 
and finally unintelligible to the masses, the desire for some 
explanation led to the absurd story of his gaining his wealth 
by a cat ! 

Words that have come down to us from the ancient lan- 
guages have, of course, still less meaning left in their altered 
form, and here also many efforts have been made to instill 
into them new life by giving them a somewhat English shape. 
Greek names of plants furnish yXvKvs pl£a (the sweet root), 
which was once glycorys, and is now liquorice or licorice, 
with a faint reference to liquor ; the an-apts dypta, or flea-wort, 
became staves-acre ; and the Kapvo^vXXov, already in Chaucer 
cloue gilofre, instead of the true French form clou de 
girofle, was first gillyflower, and then, on the lips of the 
ignorant, even July flower. The SrjpiaKrj of the Greeks un- 
derwent a strange series of changes in form and in meaning. 



206 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

It had its original name from the viper, whose own flesh 
was long considered the best if not the only remedy for the 
creature's bite. As such it became soon a famous anti- 
dote, and as leech was once the common name of all follow- 
ers of .ZEsculapius, so this preparation became generally 
synonymous with medical confection. The French called 
•it then theriaque, which, however, Chaucer already cur- 
tailed to triacle ; as treacle it now designates simply the 
sweet syrup of molasses, with a slight hint at its trickling 
propensity. Ignorance transformed tragacant gum into 
gum dragon, as even now v^Kpofxavria, or necromancy, the 
art of calling up the dead, etc., is often called black art, 
as if it had any connection with a pretended iV^romancy. 
Our forefathers already mistook the Lydius lapis Graeco- 
rum, and called it, perhaps with reference to its unusual 
weight, or because it attracts iron, loadstone, just as they 
called the North Star the " leading star " or loadstar. The 
translators of Holy Writ made thus emerods out of hemorr- 
hoids, associating their infliction with the idea of the rod 
of the Lord ; at the same time hemicrania was, through 
the French migraine probably, converted into megrim. 
We still speak of the tiny grapes of Corinth as currants, 
as if they were the fruit of our native shrub of that name ; 
and our common people often say pottercarrier for apoth- 
ecary, as Jack calls his good ship Bellerophon a Billy 
Ruffian. 

Botanical names of Latin origin have led to similar unin- 
tentional disguises. Asparagus is better known as sparrow- 
grass, febrifuge as feverfew, and ros marinus as rosemary. 
A frontispicium is a frontispiece ; and since the lanterna 
of the ancients has been made of thin, split layers of horn, 
it has become a lanthorn. The rachitis of the physician 
is the rickets of the masses ; the selarium of convents is 
our salt-cellar ; and the viridumjus of the dispensary the 
verjuice of the people. The Latin viride ceris, or the 
French vert et gris, has become verdegris, and vulgarly 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 207 

verdigrease. Petrels, or Mother Cary's chickens, are, as it 
were, little St. Peters, because, like the Apostle, they can 
walk on the water. The Ligurnum of Italy was changed 
into Leghorn, precisely as the Italians themselves made 
their Negroponte out of the Greek name lv 'EyptVo). 

We have avenged the old town on the Italians tenfold ; 
we call their articiocco girasole, a sunflower artichoke which 
came from Peru to Italy and from thence to us, with utter 
disregard to geography, but with a willful appropriation of 
the girasole, Jerusalem artichoke, and even make of it a 
dish called Palestine soup ; we have, in like manner, changed 
their renegado, who denied his faith, into a runagate, 
their lustrino into lutestring, their farubala into furbelow, 
and their coasting vessel urea into a simple hooker. 

The Spanish cayo, used to designate a rock or a sand- 
bank, we transform into a hey ; and the Indian word urican, 
which has served to make the French ouragan, reappears 
in English as hurricane (hurry cane). The Spanish call 
the commander of a fleet with an Arabic word amiral : 
and Milton still wrote of a tree fit to become " the mast of 
some great ammiral." But there seems to have early arisen 
an idea that the name had something to do with admirable, 
and hence Latin writers of the Middle Ages already are 
fond of styling the chief naval officer admirabilis or admi- 
ratus, from which we derive our admiral. 

German and Dutch words have not been exempted on 
account of their close relationship. The hysenblas of 
Holland, meaning the bladder of the fish called hysin, 
our sturgeon, is now isinglass. The .German Weremuth 
has become bitter wormwood ; the lindwurm of noble Sieg- 
fried, a mean blind-worm ; a prophetic Weissager, a contempt- 
ible wiseacre; and the harsh name of the Rhenish town 
Bacharach is often found in old English plays as Backrag. 

The farther we go beyond the members of the family of 
languages to which the English belongs, the more difficult 
is it, of course, to trace the nature of this change and natu- 



208 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

ralization. The Mount Vidgeon pea of our gardeners' cata- 
logues reminds, probably, few readers of its Montevidean 
origin, and the familiar nightmare carries still fewer back to 
distant Finland, where Mara, the fearful elf, inflicts that 
punishment upon the wicked and the scorner. The common 
demijohn, once upon a time spelt damajan, has an even 
more remarkable derivation than the popular but apocryphal 
Dame Jeanne, commonly quoted. The name is the same 
as that of a city in Persia, in the province of Khorassan, 
called Damaghan, where formerly a famous kind of glass- 
ware was manufactured; the Crusaders were struck with 
certain articles of this ware, and brought the thing and the 
name together back to their European homes. 

The most remarkable feature connected with this process 
of giving new forms and new meanings to words which are 
perfectly extraneous and unconnected with their history, is, 
that even English names should have been made to undergo 
such a change. This arose, probably, first in names of for- 
eign origin, though borne by English families. The Flem- 
ish Tupigny became in English Twopenny, and the Dan- 
ish names of Asketil, Thurgod, and Guthlac were changed 
into Ashkettle, Thoroughgood, and Goodluch There is a 
place in Norwich now called Goodluck's Close, which 
in ancient documents is correctly written Guthlac's Close, 
and thus allows us to trace the gradual change from one 
generation to another. In the famous name of Wilber- 
force an attempt is made to substitute a familiar word for 
one less generally known ; it was anciently Wilburgybss. 
From names the process was extended to common nouns. 
A Welsh rarebit became a Welsh rabbit ; gorseberries were 
made gooseberries, as gossamer is in many districts called 
goosesummer ; and Saxon meregold, which contained the 
same old word mere, & marsh or water, which appears 
in merman and mermaid, became marygold. The diminu- 
tive kin being no longer effective in connection with the 
antiquated word culver, (from Lat. columba,) it was mod- 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 209 

ernized and became culverlcey. Certain cards in our com- 
mon games were of old distinguished from others by the 
long, splendid gown worn by king, queen, etc., according to 
the gorgeous costumes of the Middle Ages, and hence ob- 
tained the name of coat cards ; afterwards the origin was 
forgotten, and then these royal personages suggested another 
idea, and they are now called court cards. Old Saxon 
words have especially suffered in this manner. What we 
now call shamefaced had originally nothing to do with a 
face, but was shamefast, formed after the manner of stead- 
fast, and printed thus in Chaucer, Froissart, and the first 
authorized version of the Bible (1 Tim. ii. 9). The Saxon 
name of that class of plants which contains absinth was 
suthewort, or soothing wort; first the latter part became 
obscure, and gave rise to a change into soothing wood ; then 
the first part also was forgotten, and the people now call it 
southernwood. A similar now unknown word ord, mean- 
ing the first beginning, and preserved in the German ur, 
gave rise to the expression of ord and end, for which we 
substitute the more familiar sounding but unmeaning odds 
and ends, as topsy-turvy is but the vulgarized form of top- 
side the other way. Shuttlecock was not so very long 
ago used correctly as shuttle cork; but stirrup has long 
since superseded the Anglo-Saxon stig rap, from stigan, to 
step up, and rap, a rope, which in Saxon days served the 
purpose. 

Sadder, however, by far, and yet clothed with additional 
interest, is the fate of English nouns that have suffered in 
meaning what those we have mentioned had only endured 
in form. Here it is the spirit itself that is maltreated ; and 
the effect is all the more melancholy as the principle of 
compensation that affords comfort to many a sufferer in life 
does not seem to apply in like manner to the fate of words. 
Many have fallen, few only have risen. Horace is either 
unjust or not well informed when he says : — 
14 



210 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

u Multa renascentur quae jam cecidere, cadentque 
Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus 
Quern pene arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi." — Ars Poet. 70. 

It is strange that terms of war should be almost the 
only examples of nouns that have risen from an humble 
to a nobler meaning. Thus cavalry comes from the Latin 
caballus, which meant at first nothing more than a pack- 
horse, from which, however, was subsequently derived the 
caballarius, who finally rose to be the French chevalier. 
Infantry consisted once of the infantes, the boys and ser- 
vants, who ran, during the Middle Ages, on foot by the side 
of their masters on horseback ; these formed gradually 
separate corps, known as infanterie, and finally assumed 
the place of their lords, the knights, in the estimation of 
great commanders. The humble servant who at first was 
called in Old German a schalk, and whose sole duty was 
his attendance upon a mare, became known as mares- 
calk ; he rose to be the superintendent of the royal stables 
and obtained one of the high charges at court. It was 
then he was named marshal, and distinction in the field 
procured for him the chief command of the forces. Still, 
we find, in the French army at least, by the side of the 
field marshal another marechal, who still pursues a pro- 
fession more akin to the first meaning of the word, for he 
is a simple farrier. The knight himself had a hard struggle 
before he obtained the lofty position he still occupies in 
our language. The first of the name known in historic 
documents was a menial servant, such as the German 
knecht remains to this day. Already in Anglo-Saxon 
writings, however, the word is used frequently for boy, 
as in the Southern States of America until our day every 
slave, of whatever age he might be, was called a boy. Thus 
we meet with a " tynwintra cniht" a boy of ten years, and 
in the Anglo-Saxon version of the gospel the Apostles are 
called " learning cnihts" Certain privileged boys were 
subsequently allowed to bear arms, and as this honorable 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 211 

distinction was only sparingly conferred, the word gradu- 
ally acquired a higher application, and finally settled down, 
in the days of chivalry, into the grade and style of a 
knight 

Unfortunately, it is but too true, as Robertson says, 
that " names and words soon lose their meaning. In 
the process of years and centuries the latter fades off them 
like the sunlight from the hills. The hills are there ; the 
color is gone." Generally the process is this : words are 
unfamiliar and dignified at first, they become gradually 
more common and with it more indifferent, until many 
sink at last into trivial and contemptible by-words. Occa- 
sionally the history of such decay is well authenticated, as 
in the case of Bridewell. St. Bridget, or shorter St. Bride, 
was the name bestowed in olden times upon a well in Lon- 
don, and near it a church of the same name was soon 
erected. Then a royal palace was added, where King John 
resided and even Henry VIII. in 1529. After that, how- 
ever, the mansion was neglected ; and when quite decayed, 
it was converted into a hospital, always bearing the origi- 
nal name of St. Bride's Well. This was converted in 
1559 into a house of correction, by the agency of Ridley 
the martyr, then Bishop of London. Ultimately it became 
a simple prison ; and Bridewell is now applied, wherever 
English is spoken, to denote a work-house, neither blessed 
saint nor holy well having any thing more to do with the 
edifice. A somewhat similar fate was that of a priory in 
London, known as St. Mary's of Bethlehem, and founded 
by Simon Fitzmary, in 1247, for the pious purpose of shel- 
tering and entertaining there the Bishop of Bethlehem 
whenever he should be in London. Perhaps the fact that 
such a remarkable visit never actually occurred afterwards, 
or simpler motives, led Henry VIII. in 1545 to grant it to 
the city, and thus brought about the conversion of this 
mansion into a house for the insane. Hence the name of 
Bedlam now almost universally used to designate a hospital 



212 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

for lunatics. As we have mentioned above several military 
words that had the rare good fate of reaching high honor, 
we may add here one that has been less fortunate. The 
noble family of Merode, famous in the history of the Neth- 
erlands, boasted of one brave member w T ho was unfortu- 
nately more successful in making forays into the enemy's 
land than in obtaining great victories. This uncomfortable 
reputation gave rise to the term of marauders, such as are 
found hanging upon the flanks and the rear of all armies. 
Among common nouns there are again many of foreign 
origin the meaning of which has suffered sadly in the 
course of time. Giving precedence to the sex, we find 
that the belle dame of the French was by Spenser al- 
ready written in shorter English form, but used as yet for 
"fair lady." Soon after Gallic courtesy transferred the 
term to grandmothers, and it now appears as beldame, a 
word which afterwards sank to designate a hag or a witch. 
We are told a moral lesson, characteristic of the change 
in manners, by the French word prude, which originally 
meant a prudent, honest man, and in that signification sur- 
vives in prud'homme, the title of umpires between me- 
chanics and tradesmen in France. In the other sex, how- 
ever, it has changed until it is often used to suggest fallen 
or at least ill-understood virtue rather than prudence. In 
this connection we may add respectable, which derived from 
its Latin elements the idea of looking back or looking 
twice at an object, and thus came to mean worthy of re- 
spect. Whilst in the United States the older meaning has 
been preserved in this as in so many English words, it has 
fallen in England, and refers now generally to mediocre 
intellect, or fallen gentility, with which we sympathize. 
Antique also conveys its lesson ; used at first exclusively 
for what is old and old-fashioned, it was changed in form 
and meaning into antics, suggestive of the fact that in an 
age where the young rule, all that is old is objectionable 
and liable to ridicule. The haughty superciliousness with 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 213 

which the Roman citizen looked down upon the poor emi- 
grant to foreign shores, gave to his colonics a dash of 
contempt, which survived for a time in the kindred feeling 
of Englishmen toward distant colonies, and led to the 
contraction of the word into clown. The feeling is said to 
be extinct ; the word survives as a sign of its former preva- 
lence. There seems to be an invincible tendency for words 
to become harsher and more sweeping in their condemn 
natory meaning, if they but contain the germ of such a 
growth. Is this indicative of the weakness of the human 
heart to see the mote in the neighbor's eye and to over- 
look the beam in our own ? Thus we find that base meant 
originally nothing more than low or humble, and even in the 
old Bible version our Lord was said to be " equal to them 
of greatest baseness ; " now it is used only of the scamp and 
the criminal. In like manner miscreant was simply an un- 
believer, such as Joan of Arc is represented by Shakes- 
peare ; subsequently it became a term of vilest reproach. 
This leads us to the two words pagan and villain, both of 
which are now terms of reproach, after having once had 
reference only to the residence of certain classes of men. 
For when first the Gospel was proclaimed abroad in Italy, 
every town from the blue waters of Sicily to the snow- 
capped Alps in the north seems to have opened its gates 
wide to the messengers of peace. But in the villages and 
waste tracts of land which still were found here and there, 
the rustics went on in the old path, burning incense on their 
heathen altars, and slaying white bulls in honor of Jove, as 
their fathers had done before them. About the end of the 
fourth century, Theodosius finally prohibited the Pagan 
ceremonial altogether ; from that time no fire was to be 
lighted in honor of any god, no wine to be poured to the 
genius, no incense to be offered to the Penates. The sac- 
rifice of a victim to be offered to the gods was to be consi- 
dered as high treason, and the decoration of a tree or an 
altar was punished with confiscation. The persecuted wor- 



214 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

shipers of the ancient gods retired from the city and village 
to dark forests and deserts, from the open country to re- 
tired valleys. Henceforth the worship of Venus and Ju- 
piter ceased to be that of the great and the noble, and was 
gradually more and more confined to the inhabitants of 
rural districts, pagi. Hence it acquired its name as religio 
paganorum, and Orosius explains the latter as men " qui 
ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani vocantur" 
From these despised worshipers of graven images the 
name has come down, with undiminished strength, even to 
our day. Such is the force of a word, carrying with it on 
the stream of long centuries some powerful idea ; and well 
has it been said of old, "Credunt homines rationem suam 
verbis imperare. Sed jit etiam ut verba vim suam super 
intellectum retorqueant et rejiectant? It is curious to notice, 
that, whilst paganus has sunk so low, its fellow compaganus 
has risen to be our modern companion. In like manner, 
however, fell the name of the Roman master's slave, who 
was sent to his villa in the country, and hence received the 
name of villaneus. This was by no means a word of re- 
proach, and although it may have shared the degradation 
of pagan to a certain degree, it was not, even in Old English, 
used to express more than rusticity or coarseness. At a 
certain period the word had acquired a highly offensive 
moral meaning ; but, by one of those strange fluctuations to 
which words are as subject as the ideas which they repre- 
sent, it was in Chaucer's time used to express nothing worse 
than a serf, glebce adscriptus, and, in the general acceptation 
of a plebeian, a low-born person with low tastes. Thus 
Chaucer employs it when he translates the French vilonnie 
of Lorris in the Romaunt de la Rose, v. 2175 : — 

" Villanie at the beginning, 
I woll, sayd Love, over all thing 
Thou leave, if thou wolt ne be 
False and trespace agenst me ; 
I curse and blame generally 
All hem that loven villany^ 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 215 

For villanie maketh villeine, 
And by his deeds a chorle is seine. 
These villaines are without pitie, 
Friendship, love, and all bountie." 

With a somewhat different meaning he uses it, in the 
Prologue to his " Canterbury Tales/' when he says : — 

" But firste I praie you of your curtesie 
That ye ne asette it not my vilanie 
Though that I plainly speke in this matere, 
Ne though I speek his wordes proprely." 

It has been mentioned elsewhere how pilgrims to Eome 
became idle roamers, and those who went to the Holy Land, 
the Sainte Terre, were suspected of being saunlerers. In 
the same manner the French word purlieu meant in Eng- 
land what it literally designates, a pur lieu, i. e., lands taken 
in from the forest for purposes of cultivation, and hence 
freed from the strict forest laws of those days. Now it is 
commonly used for a disreputable neighborhood. Two 
words of Eastern origin have suffered similar decay. When 
the Tudors and the Stuarts made their court brilliant with 
gorgeous displays and cunning masks, dances in Turkish 
costume were much in vogue and known as mahomerias, 
from their association with Mohammed's followers. Later, 
the word dwindled down into mummery, which means now a 
low masquerade, a disgusting disguise. Our word gibberish 
has a loftier origin : it comes from a famous sage Geber, 
an Arab, who sought for the philosopher's stone in the 
eighth century, and perhaps used unintelligible incantations, 
— a custom which led to the present meaning of the word. 

English words have naturally not so often suffered in this 
way,vas there was always more or less in their sound to re- 
call the original meaning. Still, examples are here also not 
wanting of words that have fallen from a high estate. There 
is the Anglo-Saxon boer, who tilled the soil and gave his 
name to the neighbor of our day ; his rustic ways, how- 
ever, soon became known as boorish, and the coarse, ill- 



216 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

mannered man is apt to be called a boor. Hence, also, 
through the derivative boorly, our less obnoxious burly, 
which refers to external appearance only. The same tran- 
sition took place in the Saxon word ceorl, which once was 
a title of honor, meaning emphatically a free man, as it still 
does in the German form, Kerl, and which is said to survive 
in our Charles. It is surmised, however, that these free 
dwellers on their own soil became soon obnoxious to king 
and nobles alike, and that hence their name soon sank to a 
lower meaning. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says already 
of King Charles, that he was a " Ceorla Cyng," a churlish 
king, and thus a churl has remained to this day a rude boor. 
The kindred word fellow is even now in a state of transition : 
it still has its original meaning of companionship when we 
speak of fellow-sufferers or fellow-citizens, or call a friend a 
fine fellow ; but fellow alone is no compliment, and shows 
the tendency of the word to assume an objectionable ex- 
pression. Knave, on the contrary, is always a reproach. In 
its earlier days it served to designate a son or boy, and St. 
Paul was thus called a " knave of Jesus Christ." This is the 
meaning of the German Knabe to this day. But when 
the sister language-made a slightly different word, Knappe, 
and bestowed this name upon a servant, — even as serf 
differs from servant, — our English did not follow the sug- 
gestive example, but used knave for the sam£ purpose. 
This meaning accounts for our calling the king's servant 
in a pack of cards the knave, as from the German we have 
borrowed our knapsack, the boy's sack slung over his shoul- 
der. Hence the curious difference in meaning of the same 
word at different periods. Wickliffe translates Exodus i. 16 : 
" If it is a knave child, sle ye him ; if it is a woman, kepe 
ye," and the patient Grisel in the old ballad bore " a knave 
child " to the cruel Marquis, who had robbed her of her 
daughter. But already in " Robin Hood " we read ; — 

M But now I have slaine the master, he says, 
Let me goe strike the knave." 



HOW NOUNS ARE ABUSED. 217 

The transition is explained by the historic fact, that the 
name was, at an early period, generally given to the boys in 
great lords' kitchens ; these behaved badly and were treated 
badly, and thus the word became gradually a term of re- 
proach. Shakespeare shows it to us in a state of transition, 
using it now for a boy and then for a scamp, whilst in " Ju- 
lius Caesar," IV., he even says : " Gentle knave, good-night ! " 
It is hardly necessary to repeat that in our day the word is 
one of earnest condemnation. 

Thus it was also with one of the numerous descendants 
with which the root bred, to breed, has endowed our lan- 
guage. Besides the words breed, brood, bride, and brother, 
it has bequeathed to us the unfortunate brat, which origi- 
nally meant nothing but offspring, and is used as such in 
Dean Trench's quotation from Gascoigne's " De Pro- 
fundis": — 

" Israel, household of the Lord, 
O Abraham's brats, O brood of blessed seed, 
O chosen sheep that loved the Lord indeed." 

Then it became usual to designate an ill-favored child as a 
brat, and now the word is hardly admissible in polite con- 
versation. Three names of persons of the fairer sex have 
had a peculiar fate. Gossip, which is at least but rarely 
applied to men, has the same high origin as gospel, 
meaning sib or akin in God, and was originally used to 
designate all persons who jointly entered into the relation 
of sponsors for a child about to be baptized. The relation- 
ship, it is well known, is considered so close as to constitute, 
in the Catholic church, an insurmountable obstacle to mar- 
riage. Now, the word bears too pointed an allusion to the 
talking, slandering propensities of certain persons to be 
any longer complimentary. It is curious that the corre- 
sponding word in French, commere, has lost its exalted 
nature in precisely the same manner. The once noble title 
of housewife, in its full form still unsurpassed in its sim- 
ple and approving meaning, has degenerated into the vile 



218 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 



hussy. As if to make amends, we find that the ancient 
word cwen, once used in contrast with gom, as woman with 
man, has, from an expression of the mere difference in sex, 
risen to designate the woman by eminence, the queen, as 
cyning, of the kin, gave us king, and as the royal children 
of Spain and France are to this day called, fils de France 
and infantes de Espana. 



CHAPTER XII. 

ADJECTIVES. 
11 Ho for an epithet ! n — Ancient Author. 

" The English is plenteousne enoughe to expresse our 
myndes in any thing whereof one man hath nede to speke 
with another," says Sir Thomas More, who evidently dealt 
much in matter of fact, or despised epithets as much as 
modern authors love them by the side of their nouns. For 
the English is not particularly rich in adjectives, and re- 
sembles, although it does not go quite as far as, the language 
of a tribe of North American Indians, the Mohegans, who 
have no adjectives whatever, if we may rely on the judg- 
ment of Dr. Jonathan Edwards. It is well known how this 
statement delighted our democratic philologist, Home Tooke, 
who found in it a strong proof of his doctrine, that adjec- 
tives were never original words. They are, at all events, 
not a separate class of words, not names of persons or 
things possessing an independent existence. The mental 
process to which they owe their origin is the naming of 
qualities, observed in tangible objects but separated from 
them, so that they may be applied to others also. One con- 
sequence of this want of substantiality is, that they change 
their meaning in the process of passing from one language 
to another more than nouns and verbs. Nouns are always 
more or less intimately connected with the object they des- 
ignate, and may easily be traced back to it, even after they 
have been used figuratively for generations. Adjectives, on 
the other hand, express only qualities, and qualities assume 



220 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

very different aspects as they are applied to different objects. 
A brave homme is by no means a brave man with us, 
and a virtuoso need not at all be a virtuous man ac- 
cording to our standard of morality. The national respect 
paid to wealth in England has long since led foreigners to 
notice the tendency to describe every thing that is praised 
as a rich thing, — rich colors, a rich saying, or a rich joke, 
even, — and to condemn what is inferior as a poor thing, 
— a poor book and a poor statue. Changes of meaning 
are shown most in those adjectives we have received from 
the French. By dint of mispronouncing and misspelling, 
they have often lost both form and meaning. Thus ecrase 
is now applied to the mind only as crazy; gentil, besides the 
vulgarized genteel, the pleasing gentle, and the rarer gentile, 
has produced the offensive jaunty ; puisne, still preserved 
in our judges, is for all other persons simply puny ; and 
deshabille has, not without justice, become shabby. Aigre 
is no longer sharp, as it must once have been, to judge 
from the line in Chapman's " Iliad : " " Now on the eager 
razor's edge for life or death we stand." It is only in vine- 
gar that it has preserved its older meaning of acrid. In 
other words we find a division of meaning, as in the de- 
scendants of the Latin captivus, which has given us first 
captive, and then, from the contempt with which early Sax- 
ons looked upon the miserable prisoner, the meaner caitiff. 
In Italian the same word, cattivo, now means all that is bad ; 
in French, chetif whatever is feeble and fragile. Some of 
these changes, which are unfortunately but seldom to be 
traced step by step, are so peculiar as to deserve greater 
attention than they have obtained heretofore. How came 
gros to be only gross, petit to be petty, and joli to degenerate 
into jolly ? The transition has been even more injurious 
to a number of German adjectives, — a fatality which the 
learned Dean Trench ascribes to the depression of the 
Anglo-Saxons after their sad defeat by the Normans. If 
this can be proved, — and the assertion is well supported, 



ADJECTIVES. 221 

— their moral deterioration has left a permanent and most 
interesting record in our language. Some changes are in- 
explicable, as those of German emsig (busy), klein (little), 
glatt (smooth), and dumm (stupid), into empty, clean, glad, 
and dumb. Others show a clear demoralization, as when 
taper, (valiant) sinks into dapper, rasch (active) into rash, 
and prdchtig (splendid) into pretty. Among these Ger- 
man adjectives, bleich (pale) also became bleak, although 
in Fox's "Book of Martyrs " the latter has still the original 
meaning : " When she came out, she looked as pale and 
as bleak as one that were laid out dead." 

The number of adjectives derived from foreign languages 
is quite large, that of the natives comparatively small. In 
return, the English exercises, of all living languages, the 
greatest freedom in using any word, noun or adverb, as an 
adjective by merely placing it alongside of another noun. 
The result, with regard to the former part of speech is, that 
in our day, of two nouns placed side by side, one, as a 
matter of course, qualifies or characterizes the other, and 
thus performs the part of an adjective. We are all familiar 
with a gold watch, a bottle nose, sl University man, an evening 
dress, or a morning draught. Some authors go farther, from 
Campbell's " Like angel visits few and far between," to Leigh 
Hunt's " With her in-and-out deliciousness," or Falstaff 's 
advice to Prince Hal, " Go hang yourself in your own heir- 
apparent garters." 

Original adjectives can, therefore, scarcely be said to exist 
in English. Even about the simplest of those now in use 
there hangs a doubt ; our good has been commonly traced to 
the same root as God, and ill is but a contracted form of evil. 
Others, of course, cannot be so distinctly traced back to their 
first origin, and pass, therefore, as original. 

The number of derivatives is large, and here, as among 
nouns, we find both Saxon and Norman syllables used for 
the purpose, although many of them have of late become 
obsolete. Many Anglo-Saxon and Old English termina- 



222 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

tions, however, are still clearly known as such, and among 

them especially the ancient -en. Its use must have been 

very common, for among older writers we meet hundreds 

of words formed by its aid, which are now no longer in use. 

Chaucer speaks of rosen chaplet and azurn sheen ; Spenser 

has, in " Mother Hubberd's Tale," — 

" Or els by wrestling to wex strong and heedfull, 
Or his stiffe armes to stretch with eughen bo we ; " 

and in his " Fairy Queen," (V. 5, 30,) — 

" Let him lodge hard and lie in strawen bed, , 
That may pull downe the courage of his pride." 

Sir Thomas More makes good use of the syllable when 
he says : " In their time they had treen chalices and golden 
prestes, and now we have golden chalices and treen prestes." 
This word treen seems to have been a favorite with our 
fathers, for we find, that, not to speak of WicklifFe, who has 
treen by the side of stonen, hairen, bricken, and hornen, Milton 
speaks in " Comus " of treen platters, and Jeremy Taylor 
recommends a treen cup. With true poetic instinct Wood- 
worth still sings of " the old oaken bucket " and the noble 
poem, so full of sweet thoughts of childhood passed in the 
country, will no doubt preserve the old form as long as 
Englishmen love English songs. 

Now we still use brazen and flaxen, woolen and wooden, 
golden, and sometimes leaden and silken ; but there is a 
manifest tendency in the language to dispense with this 
class of adjectives, and to substitute for them the simple 
form of the noun. Brazen is giving way to brass orna- 
ments, oaken to oak floor, and oaten to oatmeal. Golden 
and earthen are still familiar to us, because they are in our 
Bibles ; but on all other occasions the nouns are employed, 
and we speak of a gold pin and of eartA-works. Woolen holds 
likewise its own, but its meaning is more limited than be- 
fore the time when the town of Worstead, in the parish of 
Norfolk, first established extensive manufactories of worsted. 
The corresponding forms of Latin words in English are 



ADJECTIVES. 223 

such as ligneous and marine, of Greek, cedrine and petrine. 
The adjective derived from austere has become somewhat 
obscured, being shortened into stern ; in the ancient ballad 
of " Northumberland Betrayed," by Douglas, we find still : — 

ik But who is yond thou lady faire 
That looketh with sic an austeren face? " 

The termination -y, simple as it appears at first sight, is 
of great antiquity and original power. It is the last faint 
echo of a syllable corresponding to the Greek -ucos, from 
aya), and to the Latin -icus, from ago. Only in one single 
instance has the fuller form been brought down directly 
from the Greek ; this is in the word </>pej/€riKos, which gave 
to the Italians their farnetico, and to us the modern frantic. 
Its Anglo-Saxon form had already softened into -ig ; the 
final g was then, most probably, pronounced like a gentle 
aspirate, as is the case now in all such words in German, 
and, finally, the g becoming silent, the English wrote it y, 
the Scotch ie. Thus we have made words like bloody, any, 
holy, mighty, speedy, sorry (from sore), ready, and others, 
but not our numerals with the same termination ; for these 
the final syllable is ty, and has a very different origin and 
meaning. When the original word terminates already in a 
vowel, we insert, as an orthographical precaution, an addi- 
tional e between it and the final y ; this is the origin of our 
clayey and skyey. 

The rarer -ish, on the other hand, seems to be of entirely 
modern origin, for the Greek did not know it at all, and 
the Latin only in verbs, as viresco and pallesco, from which 
are descended the many Norman verbs of the kind, like 
garnish and furnish. It appears first in Italian adjectives 
as -esco, and in French as -esque, which we have preserved in 
picturesque and statuesque (?), arabesque and mor esque, bur- 
lesque and grotesque. The leading idea seems to be that of 
likeness, and, as what is only like another object is not the 
same as the original, there followed soon the idea of mere 
resemblance, and hence of diminution. It differs from like 



224 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

in this, that it refers only to the outside quality, not to the 
essential character. Thus we speak of Jewish and knavish, 
of bluish and grayish ; and occasionally in connection with a 
French root, as in feverish and foolish. The modern Scotch, 
Welsh, and French are but contracted forms of the original 
Scottish, Walish, and Franhish. We express the meaning 
of ish in Latin words by forms like rubescent, and in Greek 
by oidal, as in spheroidal. 

Of greater importance at present, and of true Saxon 
origin, is the frequent termination -ly, the remnant of the 
original lie. There was yet not only in Anglo-Saxon, but 
even in Old English, a noun lice, which meant, rather 
technically, the body, and hence often served to designate 
the corpse. Its German representative, Leiche, still in 
use, has that meaning exclusively, and retains the pronun- 
ciation of our Saxon fathers ; for the town of Leigh, near 
Wigan, the name of which is derived from this root, is 
pronounced by simple and gentle alike with the true gut- 
tural sound of the German ch. Numerous old terms and 
local names are derived from the same word, and retain, 
more or less distinctly, the primary meaning. Halliwell 
gives us lichwort as herb pellitory, and lychebells as hand- 
bells rung for the dead. We are all familiar with the 
superstitious awe inspired by the uncouth calls of the lich- 
owl, which either accompanies the laying-out of a dead per- 
son or foretells the near approach of death. The town of 
Lichfield, the birthplace of Dr. Johnson, is said by Bailey 
to derive its name of a field of carcasses from the fact that 
" a great many suffered martyrdom there in the time of 
Diocletian." In Scotland the same term lich-field is fre- 
quently used for churchyard as a graveyard ; and in some 
parts of England the gate appropriated specially for the 
admission of dead bodies before interment is to this day 
called lich-gate, though often misspelt as leech-gate. The 
path leading to this entrance is in Exmoor and the west of 
England called the leech-way, and in Cheshire the lich-road. 



ADJECTIVES. 225 

Chaucer introduces, in the " Knight's Tale," 3959, a similar 

word when he says, — 

" Ne how the Uchewache was yhold, 
All thilke night," 

which sitting up with the dead body is now generally a 
like-wake, and, not unfrequently, especially in the North of 
England, a late-wake. 

From this ancient word we derive in modern English a 
double form for adjectives : the full form like, the German 
gleich, where we wish to convey the idea of full resem- 
blance .in character and all essentials, in the sense, in fact, 
in which Shakespeare says, in " Julius Caesar," — 

" That every like is not the same, O Caesar, 
The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon." 

The Scotch proverb, " Like 's an ill mark," expresses the 
same, namely, that to be like a thing is often very far from 
being that thing. In this sense we form adjectives like life- 
like, church-like, and court-like. When we wish, on the other 
hand, to express a mere general resemblance, not in essen- 
tial qualities but in form or in figure, we employ the short- 
ened form -ly, and thus make lively, curly, and manly. In 
many cases double forms exist, where the full word gives 
the full meaning, the shortened word the curtailed mean- 
ing. The difference is easily perceived between godlike and 
godly, ghost-like and ghostly, death-like and deathly, or heaven- 
like and heavenly. Clearly, durably, valiantly, voraciously, 
and passively are examples of French words which have 
assumed the Saxon ending ; they never take like with its 
full Saxon meaning. The original word is obscured and 
almost concealed in forms like frolic, which originally meant 
nothing more than freely, as it came from freo, our free, 
and silly, which is derived from the word seld, strange or 
rare, still retained in our seldom. 

The termination -some is even now in the act of becoming 
obsolete, and its primary meaning has so entirely faded 
away from the memory of men that it is extremely difficult 
15 



226 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

to trace it with certainty to its true origin. The most prob- 
able derivation is from a root which has also given us our 
sum, a presumption strengthened by the fact that we use it 
under the same form of some already when we wish to de- 
note an indefinite sum or quantity. Thus we say, " I went 
some twenty miles," or, " He gave him some hundred pounds." 
Here, as in en, the former frequency and the gradual disap- 
pearance of the termination may be distinctly traced from 
generation to generation. Wickliffe has lovesum and hate- 
sum, lustsum and wealsum, heavy sum and delightsum. Beau- 
mont and Fletcher are fond of the still surviving toothsome, 
Shakespeare has laborsome, and Milton unlightsome. Even 
in so recent a writer as Hume we find playsome, gleesome, 
and joy some, which are rapidly disappearing from the pages 
of modern authors. We may rest contented with having 
lost the derivative of ugly, which we find in Surrey's iEneid, 
(II. p. 29,) - 

" In every place the ugsome syhtes I saw," 

but the loss of longsome, familiar to German scholars as 
langsam (slow) in that language, is much to be regretted. 
The ballad of " Gilderoy " has,— 

" Wi' mickle joy we spent our prime 
Till we were baith sixteen, 
And aft we pest the langsome time 
Among the leaves sae green." 

With the exception of a few like fulsome (from foulsome), 
wearisome, and lonesome, there seems to be a tendency to 
retain this beautiful and expressive form only for words con- 
veying pleasing impressions, such as gleesome, mirthsome, 
handsome, and toothsome. The Norman hybrids are of a 
different nature : there we have venturesome, quarrelsome, 
and cumbersome. Irksome comes from the Saxon form 
wyrc, our work, and therefore means literally "full of 
work." Buxom was formerly boughsom, like a bough to 
be bent, as in the German biegsam, of which Dean Trench 
gives us the interesting illustration in an ancient profession 
of submission : " I submit myself unto this holy church of 



ADJECTIVES. 227 

Christ, to be ever buxom and obedient to the ordinances of 
it." Why it should nowadays be almost exclusively ap- 
plied to widows is difficult of explanation ; it may be that 
an indistinct association between a bough and a green old 
age may have led to the connection. 

One of the most fertile words of this kind is -less, from 
the Saxon lease, to lose, which gives us fatherless and 
motherless, careless, and reckless, literally one who has lost 
his reckoning. It adapts itself with greater readiness than 
others to French roots, as in artless, merciless, graceless, joy- 
less, and painless. Its sense is so manifest and so suggest- 
ive that new adjectives of this class are continually made 
by modern authors ; some obtain admission into the body 
of the language, others are understood but not adopted. 
Byron ventured far in the lines : — 

" The world was void, 
The population and the powerful was a lump, 
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless, 
A lump of death, a chaos of hard clay." 

It is not much to the credit of the people, if we may 
judge them by their language, that the idea of loss should 
have produced such numbers of derivatives, whilst the 
opposite idea of holding fast is met with but rarely. We 
have but a few, like steadfast, and one of the most express- 
ive, shamefast, as it is printed in the Bible of 1611, (1 
Tim. ii. 9,) meaning protected by shame, is now sadly 
changed by ignorance into shamefaced. 

Among these derivative adjectives we must not forget 
those that have been made negative either by the Saxon 
un, or the Norman French in. The former prevailed for a 
time even after the Conquest ; then followed, apparently, a 
period of confusion, during which un and in were used 
without distinction, until, finally, the all-powerful tendency 
to uniformity made in the prevailing form. Thus we use 
now incapable exclusively for the once universal uncapable. 
Shakespeare has impossible (" Richard II.," Act II., sc. 2), 
and " like a thing unfirm," (" Julius Caesar"). Milton uses 



228 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

repeatedly unactive, and, with strange forgetfulness, says, in 
" Paradise Lost," X., " Uninmortal made all kinds." It is 
somewhat strange that the disposition to adopt the French 
in for all cases, should have affected Saxon words more 
than French ; for we still say, uncertain, unceasing, and un- 
determined, and generally use, even now, un with French 
adjectives. This is all the more remarkable as the language 
shows generally a very decided tendency to admit such hy- 
brids only as exceptions, and, as a rule, to combine words 
of the same race only, — Latin with Latin, and Saxon with 
Saxon. The state of transition in which the negative pre- 
fix now is may be seen from the varied forms in which it 
appears in modern English. We have the pure Saxon ele- 
ments in unlike, & German and a Norman word combined in 
uncertain, a Latin form in insecure, and finally the softened, 
probably French, ignoble. 

Although we no longer decline our adjectives, as the 
Anglo-Saxons did, we still inflect them for the purpose of 
forming what grammarians not very appropriately call their 
comparative degrees. As adjectives express but a quality 
belonging to some person or object, the extent of being 
thus qualified will necessarily differ much in various cases. 
Two persons may be endowed with the same quality, but 
one will possess it in a higher degree than the other ; and 
all languages have made efforts to express this difference in 
meaning by a change in the form of the adjective itself, 
rather than by additional words. It is a remarkable fact, 
not yet satisfactorily explained, that the oldest of well- 
known languages, the Sanscrit, the Zend, the Greek, and 
the Latin, all possess double forms for what we now call 
the comparative and superlative. 

The Sanscrit makes the comp. in tara 1 or iyas, the superl. in tama or ishta. 
" Zend M " tara " is, " " tama " ishta, 

" Greek " " repo? " o>v, " " Taro? " ictto*. 

" Latin " " ter " tus, " " mus " stus. 

1 This tara is not a pronominal ending, like so many others, but an 
ancient root, which means to go beyond, and reappears in the Latin trans 



ADJECTIVES. 229 

Thus we find d/xeuw and [xut^v, aptcrros and /xeyioros. The 
Latin, likewise, has alter, uter, neuter, (magister,) and, for the 
ancient tus, the more recent form tor, as in major and fir- 
mior ; in the superlative, optimus and maximus by the side 
of venustus, vetustus, and robustus. The example set by these 
venerable languages has been faithfully followed by more 
modern idioms, and we find in all kindred languages a 
similar duality of forms. The English shares, of course, 
this peculiarity, and we have, to this day, a comparative in 
r or in s, and a superlative in m or in st. The early history 
of these forms is not quite as clear as would be desirable 
for the honor of etymologists ; we will state here only the 
most plausible, and, at the same time, best authenticated 
theory. 

It is probable that the forms of our degrees have passed 
through an extremely simple and regular process. Taking 
it for granted that the letter r is the principal sign of the 
comparative, common to all Indo-European languages, as 
is now well established, we find the ancient Saxon word a, 
meaning time, thus treated. It is the same word we meet 
already in Greek as ad or anav, in Latin as cevum, and in 
German as ewig. Changed into a higher degree, it appears 
in Anglo-Saxon as cer or ar, which has given us our ere, 
more in time, as it were, and hence meaning before, or, 
when used as a derivative, erely, our modern early. Thus 
it is still used by Shakespeare : — 

" Ere a determinate resolution he did require a respite." 

Henry VIII. II. 4. 

The same simple and primitive word was next formed into 
a superlative by the letters st, which are in like manner 
found to be common to all the idioms which belong to the 
same family as our English. Hence arose the Anglo-Saxon 
form aerest, which has, in its turn, given us our erst, first in 

and the French ires. When the latter, therefore, places tres before an adjec- 
tive in order to express a high or transcendent degree, it does no more than 
English does by adding er to the end of an adjective. 



230 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

time. The transition from time to other qualities was easy 
enough ; what was at first only asserted with regard to this 
one relation, was soon used to express a similar superiority 
in other respects also, until the two forms ere and erst be- 
came the general means of forming what we now call the 
degrees. It is in this manner and for these reasons that 
we, in common with all branches of the German family, 
make the comparative of adjectives by adding er, and the 
superlative by adding est. Irregular forms, however, occur 
here as in all languages. It is well known how both 
Greek and Latin abounded with such varieties of forms. 
In the former, — 

dyaOos had dixeivuiv and apwTTO?, koko? had KcuaW and KaKioro?, 
/BeATiW and /?eAT«rro?, \tipiav and x«P«rro? t 

Kp€L<ra<av and KpaT«TTOs, r)<T<r<av and ij/ciotos, 

Ao)(ov and Aworos. 

In the latter, bonus made melior and optimus ; malus, pejor 
and pessimus. 

Some of the so-called irregular forms in English are, 
however, only in appearance such, having merely retained 
the Anglo-Saxon umlaut, or change of radical vowel, which 
is to this day in German faithfully preserved. Hence we 
make of old the forms older and oldest, by the side of 
elder and eldest. The former we use to designate old age 
absolutely, and thus speak of that oft-quoted personage, the 
" oldest inhabitant ; " the latter expresses merely relative 
superiority of age, as in the " Elder Pliny," or the " Elders " 
of the Church. It is the descendant of the ancient form 
of the adjective, which was eld, as Shakespeare still has it 
when he says, — 

" And well you know 
The superstitious idle-headed eld 
Received and did deliver to our ag 
This tale of Heme, the hunter, for a truth.' ' 

Merry Wives, IV. 4. 

In like manner we now make of long only longer and Ion- 
gest, but Chaucer has lenger for the former, and the original 



ADJECTIVES. 231 

vowel survives in our length and in the word Lent, so called 
because at that season the days begin once more to lengthen, 
so that formerly Lent meant not only the religious season, 
but Spring simply, as in a poem of the thirteenth century : — 

u Lenten ys come with love to toune, 
With blosmen and with briddes [birds] roune, 
That al thys blysse bryngeth." 

The large majority of so-called irregularities arise from 
the custom, also common to all known languages, of allow- 
ing one or the other form of these degrees to become obso- 
lete, and of substituting another word of similar meaning 
for it, which produces the appearance as if two entirely 
different adjectives were closely connected with each other. 
Thus the Latin language dropped junis, which is now 
only known in the noun juvenis, but retained junior ; its 
positive senes survives only as senex, but senior is still 
in use. Thus it is with our more and most, which are 
commonly quoted as comparative and superlative of much, 
without having any etymological relation with that word. 
It is not a little remarkable that most seems to be of ancient 
descent, for it is evidently one and the same word with /xet- 
crros, used instead of fiey lotos, with the magsimus of Latin, 
and the meist of the German. In our own language we 
trace it back to an obsolete Anglo-Saxon ma or moe, related 
to the equally old verb mawan, to mow. What was mown 
made a little heap, and mown thus naturally used to desig- 
nate a small quantity, in which sense we still employ it 
when we speak of hay-mow or barley -mow, as mow-burnt hay 
is hay which has been burnt in the stack. For this deriva- 
tion speaks also the use of maer and maest in Scotland and 
some of the Northern counties ; to which may be added 
the odd use made of both forms in Scotland, where they 
speak of toothermaist, quite brotherly, and use the equally 
curious expressions fartherwaur and fatherbetter. A diminu- 
tive form of this word mae also survives from oldest times 
in the Anglo-Saxon micel, and the Scotch mickle or mucHe, 



232 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

still surviving in the family name of Mitchell, literally the 
Great. Hence we say also, " Many a little makes a miclcle ; " 
and in the " Comedy of Errors," III. 1, we read, — 

41 The one ne'er got me credit, the other miclcle blame.' ' 

Moe itself is quaintly enough used as a comparative in older 
authors. Caxton says, " Many mo unto the n ombre of ten 
thousand and moo (were slayne)." The same form occurs 
continually in Chaucer and Spenser, e. g. : — 

" All these and many evils moe haunt Ire." —Fairy Queen, I. 4, 35. 

Shakespeare also has it as in "Julius Caesar : " " No, sir, there 
are moe with him ; " and in " Much Ado about Nothing," 
in. 3: — 

41 Sing no more ditties, sing no moe 
Or dumps so dull and heavy, 
The frauds of men were ever so 
Since summer first was leavy," 

where the verse evidently requires it to rhyme with so. 

The adjective bad also has nothing more than a similar- 
ity of meaning in common with the comparative degrees 
worse and worst. These are, on the contrary, derived from 
the word woe, now used as a noun only, but formerly treated 
as an adjective with its Old English derivatives wyrse and 
wyrst, and its Scotch and North of England forms waur and 
war. The substitution of these words for the regular lad- 
der was apparently not completed until a comparatively 
recent date, for Chaucer still says, — 

44 to this badder ende," — 10538, 

and Shakespeare was so little familiar with the nature of 
worse that he continually uses worser, as in " Richard III.," 
where he says, — 

44 1 wish your grandam had a worser march," 

and worsest was much affected by all the writers of the fif- 
teenth and sixteenth centuries, not excluding Shakespeare. 
Even Dryden says yet, " worser far than arms." 

In like manner we have lost the once popular adjective 
bet, from which, with a doubled final consonant, we derive 



ADJECTIVES. 233 

our better, and best by contracting the old form betest. The 
substitution of good, also, cannot have taken place very 
early, or Chaucer would not say, when he introduces his 
cook, in the " Canterbury Tales : " — 

" He loved bet the taverne than the shoppe." 

Bet also survives in a name which few will now associate 
with its true origin, Batavia, which was originally Betuwe, 
the good meadow, in contrast with Veluwe, the bad meadow. 
Little is nowadays coupled with less and least, both of 
which come from a now obsolete adjective, leas or less, least 
being but a contraction of its regular superlative, leasest. 
Formerly the comparative was lesser, and the substitution 
of less is quite recent. Fuller always uses the former; 
Shakespeare says, in " Richard III. : " — 

" There is ne'er a man in Christendom 
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he; " 

and Addison speaks of " the lesser Muse." Even the regu- 
lar superlative of little survived still in the days of Shakes- 
peare, for in " Hamlet," III., 2, we read, — 

" When love is great, the littlest doubts are fear." 

We preserve in the name of the Netherlands an Old 
English comparative, which is even now in the process of 
disappearing from our language. The adjective neath, now 
surviving only in beneath, furnished formerly the derivative 
nether, which is now almost entirely superseded by lower. 
Henry VIII., however, appealed still to " the nether House 
of Parliament," and Milton uses it continually, e.g. : — 

" Among these the seat of man 
Earth with her nether ocean circumfus'd 
Their pleasant dwelling-place." — Par. Lost, VII. 624; 



and, — 



" In yonder nether world where shall I seek 
His bright appearances, or footstep trace? " 



As in nether, so we have in rather also a comparative 
from a lost adjective ; the original form, rathe, has, how- 



234 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

ever, only lately become obsolete, for not only Chaucer says, 
in the " Miller's Tale : " — 

" Why ryse ye so rathe t Ey benedicite, 
What eyleth you?" 

but Milton also says, — 

" Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies." 

It was this use of rathe in the sense of early, which led to 
the use of rather as meaning at first earlier only. When 
Mandeville (46) speaks of " the rather Town of Damyete," 
he means an older town, and Spenser, in the " Shepherd's 
Calendar " for February, means earlier when he says that 
" The rather lambs been starved with cold." 

Satherest, which Shakespeare uses in " Love's Labor's Lost," 
IV. 2, can hardly be defended, but rathest is used by Bishop 
Sanderson in his sermons, and, as Dean Trench assures us, 
even quite recently. 

Near is an ill-treated word, which was originally a com- 
parative, the contracted form of neaher, from the Anglo- 
Saxon neah, now nigh, as in well-nigh and neighbor. It lost, 
afterwards, its comparative meaning, and became a simple 
positive, — a degradation to which, no doubt, the sad misspell- 
ing of the root contributed largely. It was not unfrequently 
disguised, as in the following lines from the " Miller's Tale: " 

" Forsooth this proverbe is no lye, 
Men say thus always, the nye slye 
Maketh the ferre love to be lothe." 

In lief, on the contrary, we have a positive which has 
lost, almost beyond recovery, its once very popular compar- 
ative degrees, and is itself fast growing obsolete. It has 
been so completely set aside that few are aware of its close 
relationship with the Anglo-Saxon verb leofan, our love, 
and its connection with the Old English leman, once lief- 
man and lefman, the dear one, and as such continually used 
of both sexes. In Chaucer's time it still had this first 
meaning of love, as in the " Monk's Tale : " — 



ADJECTIVES. 235 

" They lyved in ioyc and in felycite, 
For eche of them had other lefe and dere." 

The modern use of the word occurs, however, as early as 
Shakespeare, who says, — 

" I had as lief not be as live to be in awe 
Of such a thing as I myself." — Julius Ccesar. 

The Germans have preserved it in the endearing word lieb, 
which they connect with the genitive alter, (of all,) to make 
it emphatic ; and thus its English form occurs in " Henry 
VI. » (2) I. 1, - 

" Will ye, mine allerliefest sovereign? " 

One of the nicest points in English, not only for foreign- 
ers, but even for native writers, is the judicious choice 
between these simple forms of the comparative degrees 
and those obtained by the addition of more and most, or, 
especially before participles, better and best. In rare cases 
only, the two forms serve to express an essential difference 
of meaning ; generally it is simply a question of euphony 
or established usage. We are commonly taught not to add 
er and est to long adjectives, but Chaucer, and the best 
authors down to the seventeenth century, knew no such 
rule, and modern writers seem to pay it but little respect, 
if we may judge from Sidney's refining est, and Coleridge's 
safeliest, which, it must be admitted, do not sound well. 
Another class of adjectives which generally avoid the reg- 
ular form, are those made by the addition of words like 
full, some, less, &c. This rule was, however, formerly as 
little observed as the preceding, for we find in Wickliffe plen- 
teouslyer, in Fuller easiliest, in Dryden plainliest. Chaucer 
has wofuller and fitting est, Goldsmith in his " Vicar of Wake- 
field " cunninger and cruelest, Milton uses hopefullest, and 
even Washington Irving writes knowingest. The rule that 
adjectives of Norman-French origin ending in ent, ous, ain, 
al, ive, &c, refuse to take the Saxon terminations as neither 
suitable nor congenial, is more generally observed, though 
here, also, Chaucer indulges in royaller and gentillesU Even 



236 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

in our day great liberties are taken with certain adjectives, 
though we admit that if the author of "Master Humphrey's 
Clock " introduces us to the " mildest, amiablest, forgiving- 
est-spirited, longest-sufferingest female," the man who will 
pardon such a string of bad superlatives on any other score 
than that of weak humor, must be the mildest, amiablest, 
&c, male of a critic. 

Occasionally the difference of form enables us to distin- 
guish a predicate from an attribute, as in Byron's lines, — 

" Till 

Some worthier should appear, if I have found such 
As you yourselves shall own more worthy." 

It is not quite so easy to understand Ben Jonson's admira- 
tion for the combined use of these double forms, especially 
those of the superlative. He considered them " as a kind 
of English atticism or eloquent phrase of speech, imitating 
the manner of the most ancientest and finest Grecians, who 
for more emphasis and vehemencies' sake used so to speak." 
It cannot be denied, however, that his fanciful preference 
is shared by many of our best writers. The Bible has made 
us familiar with " the Most Highest " and " the most strictest 
sect of our religion." Shakespeare has " the most unkind- 
est cut of all ; " Milton, in his " Penseroso," " But first and 
chiefest with thee bring," and Addison, " That on the sea's 
extremest border." Byron says in " Manfred," A. I, — 

" From thy own lips I drew the charm 
Which gave all these their chiefest harm." 

Whatever can be pleaded in defense of such forms by poets, 
double comparative forms can hardly be excused on any 
plea. " More sorer punishments " in Hebrews, x. 29, convey 
no special meaning to us, and Shakespeare's 

u Nor that I am more better than Prospero." — Tempest I. 2, 

would justify one of the thousand emendations bestowed 
upon less objectionable expressions. 

It is an open question yet, even with the masters of the 



ADJECTIVES. 237 

Science of Philology, whether the compounds of most with 
adverbs, like foremost, inmost, outmost (utmost), hindmost, 
&c, are really double superlatives ; but no such doubt is 
attached to the curious forms innermost, uppermost, utter- 
most, and hindermost, where, alone in the language, the two 
degrees are combined in the same word. The Cockney 
has slyly taken advantage of these eccentric formations, 
and fashions for his private use new words of the kind, 
speaking of " the endermost house in the street," or of meet- 
ing " the biggermost man in the parish in his own bettermost 
wig." We shall hardly be justified in complaining much of 
the liberty he takes as long as even the most fastidious of 
our authors use such superfluous superlatives as amongst, 
amidst, whilst, and betwixt, for which there is no other ex- 
cuse but established usage 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PRONOUNS. 
11 Juvat integros accedere fontes. " — Juvenal. 

Well have pronouns from of old been looked upon as 
" venerable relics of languages," for the more we know 
of their history, the more clearly can we trace them, not 
in one idiom only, but in the whole vast family of Indo- 
European languages, up to the very fountain-head. The 
veteran Bopp has proved them to be, beyond comparison, 
the oldest of all the elements in our languages, and even 
the so-called irregular forms have been shown to be the 
most regular, inasmuch as they have preserved the ancient 
terminations of the Aryan with greater fidelity than either 
nouns or adjectives. Belonging, as it were, to man him- 
self more directly and intimately, they have been cher- 
ished by him with all the partiality and tenderness we are 
apt to bestow upon what is thus bound up with our individ- 
uality. For their great and main purpose is to express 
personality. Some express it as it belongs to the speaker 
and the person spoken to, and with it, necessarily, to the 
relations existing between them. This applies mainly to 
/and thou, which, as a matter of course, are inseparable 
from the idea of personality. The others transfer person- 
ality and bestow it on whatever is thus spoken of. Gram- 
marians tell us that they are, as their name indicates, mere 
substitutes for the noun, which we do not like to repeat as 
often as the same idea is reintroduced. This is but taking 
the very lowest view of one of the most important agents 



PRONOUNS. 239 

in the intercourse between man and man. But even in this 
aspect we must not overlook the fact that conveniences and 
luxuries belong everywhere to a high state of civilization and 
refinement. It is not otherwise in languages. The simplest 
and rudest are content with expressing what is absolutely 
necessary for their general purpose. As new ideas are 
evolved, and the minds of the people are more and more 
cultivated, additional words not only are required, but con- 
venient forms also are introduced, which at first would have 
been deemed superfluous. Hence, when new idioms are 
discovered, or known ones compared with others, one of the 
first questions asked is after their pronouns. Their number, 
and abundant but correct use, is considered at once as the 
best evidence of the elegance and the refinement of a lan- 
guage. They are, of all parts of speech, the most distinct- 
ive feature of an idiom. They remind us most forcibly of 
the intimate connection between the outer and the inner 
world, which we can here also observe acting upon one 
another. Ben Jonson's words recur almost instinctively to 
our mind, when he says that " Language is the mirror of 
the soul. Speak that I may see thee ! For it springs out of 
the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image 
of the parent of it — the mind. No glass renders a man's 
form and likeness so true as his speech." This is eminently 
the case with pronouns, and may be noticed even in little 
children. At first, being accustomed to hear themselves 
spoken of as the baby, or Charles and Mary, they call them- 
selves in the same way, and say " Charley wants to go to 
bed," or " Mary loves papa." It is a great step in the 
mental development of a child, when it first gives expres- 
sion to its consciousness of individuality, and uses the proud 
/ — a step which, in certain imperfect languages like the 
Algonquin, has never yet been reached, as they still largely 
substitute she for 1. 

This remarkable individuality of pronouns is strikingly 
illustrated by the historic fact, that even in times of con- 



240 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

quest and subjugation, they have ever been most faithfully 
preserved by the suffering nations. All the civilized nations 
of the world have retained them with unsurpassed tenacity, 
and our English has given most interesting proof of this 
conservatism in the days of the Conquest. For among so 
many thousand words imposed upon the conquered race 
by the victorious Norman, there is not to be found a single 
pronoun. No Saxon, it seems, could ever be brought to 
say ye or vous, for / and you, though the verb, with which 
the pronoun was connected, was pure French, as we still 
say I vouch and you march. 

There lies, however, in this very antiquity and uninter- 
rupted usefulness through so many ages, one of the great 
difficulties in analyzing pronouns. They are of such hoary 
old age, that in tracing them up toward the fountain-head, 
we are soon lost in utter darkness, where history is silent 
and even inscriptions are wanting. Besides, Schlegel 
already has observed, that like small change which loses 
its stamp and impress by continuous transfer, whilst the 
larger pieces retain it clear and undimmed, these short, 
much used pronouns lose their substance and characteristic 
marks until they can hardly be recognized. Without en- 
deavoring, therefore, to trace them in all instances through 
the various changes they have undergone, we shall confine 
ourselves here to such hints and suggestions as seem likely 
to throw more light on their present form and meaning. 

The great variety and the strict use made of personal pro- 
nouns in English shows, as much as any other characteristic 
feature of our people, the peculiar value attached by the 
16 free Briton " to his person. His well-founded self-respect, 
his proud self-consciousness, is embodied as it were in the 
capital initial, with which he alone, amid all modern nations, 
adorns the pronoun of the first person, I. It is in like 
manner that he expresses his nationality so very differently 
from a Frenchman or a German. The latter most modestly 
says, Ich bin aus Deutsckland, " I am from Germany ; " he 



PRONOUNS. 241 

belongs to his native land, and all he has to do with it is, that 
he came from it. The Frenchman rises proudly to the con- 
sciousness of his identity with the land that gave him birth ; 
he says, Je suis Francais, " I am French," and feels him- 
self a part of the great nation. But the Englishman, more 
proudly still, at once presents his personal individuality, and 
says, " I am an Englishman/' presenting himself as well 
defined and as independent as his own sea-girt land, as 
haughty and conscious of strength as the sea that he loves 
to rule. Even the slang term, borrowed from naval reg- 
isters, of "A No. 1," reminds us of the fact that the pro- 
noun of the first person was originally, in Hebrew, for 
instance, and elsewhere, ech, the same as one (Ezekiel, 
xviii. 10). It has passed safely through the Greek iyu), and 
the Latin ego ; it reappears in Old Norse as eh, in Anglo- 
Saxon as ic, and has only in later days lost its consonant 
and dwindled down to simple I. Ik is still used by Chau- 
cer, who says in the " Reve's Prologue," — 

" But ih am olde, me lest not play for age." 
Sometimes he substitutes Ich or Iche ; which corresponds to 
the form of the modern German ich ; and even Skelton 
says, (I. 95,) for " I will," Ichyll, and (102,) Ich am. 

As the first person was represented by a word equivalent 
to one, so the pronoun of the second person corresponds to 
the numeral two. The Greek crv and 8uo>, the Latin tu and 
duo, are clearly one and the same, not to speak here of 
older forms. The Anglo-Saxon thu, reduced in German to 
du, has with us expanded into thou. This, it is well known, 
was once universally used in addressing persons of any rank 
in life, and it is one of the severest losses the English has 
ever suffered, that this pronoun is now no longer employed. 
We have thus lost the voice of peculiar intimacy and special 
affection, the expression of the tender bond that unites hus- 
band and wife, parents and children. How touching is 
the German du, so suggestive of warmer love and closer 
friendship ! Even the Frenchman can yet tutoyer, little as 
16 



242 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

we may be disposed to sympathize with the use he makes 
of the privilege. Nor must we overlook the fact, that with 
the pronoun we have lost another beautiful feature which 
adorned Old English — the greater variety of forms in the 
verb, like lovest, lovedst, &c, which we now only meet with 
in the unique thou wast, and occasional outbursts of exalted 
language. The word seems not to have been entirely aban- 
doned until the seventeenth century, for in 1648, George 
Fox says in his journal : " When the Lord sent me forth 
into the world, I was required to thee and thou all men and 
women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small. 
But ah ! the rage that then was in priests, magistrates, and 
people of all sort, but especially in priests and professors, 
for though thou to a single person was according to their 
own learning, their accidence, and their grammar rules, 
•they could not bear it." It is known from other sources 
that in those days thou still continued to be used as a sign 
of familiarity and love, but it was already considered as 
not quite respectful when used with persons of superior 
rank or perfect strangers. The Quakers, however, con- 
tinued it only as they found it, instead of following the fash- 
ion which discarded it just at the time at which their sect 
became more numerous and influential. There is less to 
be said in defense of their habit of using the indirect thee 
under almost all circumstances for thou. It is true that 
pronouns generally seem to claim in some manner an ex- 
emption from the dominion or the tyranny of Syntax. The 
most fastidious authors have taken great liberties with 
their grammatical forms, and who would, e. g., think of 
rectifying Shelley's bold expression, — 

" Lest there be 
No solace left for thou or me." 

Grammatical laws of any kind seem to have so slight a 
hold on personal pronouns, that a mere point of euphony is 
considered sufficient to justify their neglect, and this uni- 
versal freedom has been but systematized by the Quakers. 



PRONOUNS. 243 

There is, besides, another plea which may be used in their 
behalf. It is a very old and general custom to substitute 
an oblique case for the nominative, arising, probably, from 
the fact that in speaking and in writing, the former are heard 
so much more frequently than the latter. Whenever, there- 
fore, a foreign language has been adopted by a nation, as 
the Latin was by the Gauls, they have invariably chosen 
that form which appears in the different oblique cases, and 
not the nominative. 

Illiterate people especially show the same tendency even 
now, and all over the world they say, almost without 
exception, me for I, him for he, and vice-versa. Sterne 
already asks the question, " What can be the reason that all 
the little children of Great Britain and Ireland universally 
say me for I? " (vi. 157.) " It is me! " is the almost un- 
failing answer to the usual " Who 's there ? " and us most 
frequently fills the place of we. " Piers Ploughman " (181) 

sings early — 

" Lord yworshipped be the," 

and even Dryden does not disdain saying, — 

" Scotland and thee did in each other live." 

Shakespeare, faithfully reflecting, in this as in all points, 

the people's language, makes his fool say in " King Lear * 

(1-4),- 

" It would not be thee, nuncle," 

but he goes farther than that, and ventures in his " Twelfth 
Night" (II. 3), upon — 

" Did you never see the picture of we three ? " 

Mr. Gilpin, in his " Remarks on Forest Scenes," says that 
he has " oftener than once met with the following tender 
elegiacs in churchyards in Hampshire : — 

* Him shall never come again to we, 
But we shall surely one day go to he. y " 

The pronoun of the second person is now used only for 



244 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

specific purposes, such as to give vigor and solemnity, or 
in earnest appeals. Thus Pope says in his " Iliad." — 

" Ah, wretch, no father shall thy corpse compose, 
Thy dying eyes no tender mother close ! " 

and elsewhere, — 

" Clad in Achilles' arms if thou appear 
Proud Troy may tremble and desist from war." 

In like manner Milton employs it in " Paradise Lost," where 
he says : — 

" And thou, enlightened earth, so fresh and gay! " 

If we were to venture upon substituting you for thou, the 
effect of the whole passage would be, if not lost, at least 
much diminished and marred. The trite proverb that 
" Familiarity breeds contempt," finds its practical illustration 
in this, that we use thou for the loftiest purpose for which 
language can be employed — for our worship of the Creator 
— and at the same time for the expression of contempt. As 
soon as thou ceased to be heard beyond the domestic circle 
and the intimacy of friends, it became a sign of disregard, 
because we are apt to treat those with insulting familiarity 
whom we do not respect. Thus, at Sir Walter Raleigh's 
trial, when Coke was at a loss for argument and evidence 
alike, he fell back upon the easier mode of attack, and said 
insultingly : "All that Lord Cobham did was at thy instiga- 
tion, thou viper, for I thou thee, thou traitor." When Sir 
Toby Belch is urging Sir Andrew Aguecheek to send a 
challenge to Viola, he says : — 

" Thou elfish-marked, abortive rooting hog, 
Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity, 
The slave of Nature and the son of hell ! 
Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb, 
Thou rag of honour, thou detested: " 

and in " Twelfth Night," " Taunt him with the license of 

ink ; if thou thou 'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss." 

The so-called first person, representing the speaker, and 

the second person, the person spoken to, must necessarily 



PRONOUNS. 245 

be in presence of each other ; hence, in English at least, 
their respective pronouns require and have no designation 
of sex. In Hebrew, on the contrary, there is also a femi- 
nine form for the second person. The so-called third per- 
son, however, of whom something is said and who is spoken 
of as absent, needs on that account to be more accurately 
defined. This has led to the only instance in the Eng- 
lish language in which gender is actually represented in the 
form of a word ; we have retained for it, in a manner, the 
Anglo-Saxon participles of the verb haetan, (to call,) he, heo, 
haet or hit. The masculine has remained unchanged ; the 
feminine, now she, survives in the hoo of Lancashire ; and 
the neuter has simply lost its aspirate. He did not reach 
our age without a struggle for its existence, for at one 
time, the old dramatists show us, a simple a was threaten- 
ing to assume its place. Thus we find in " Love's Labor 's 
Lost" (IV. 1),— 

" Who ever a' was, a' showed a mounting mind." 
It still survives among the unlettered, and Goldsmith thus 
quotes : " A troublesome old blade, but a' keeps as good 
wines as any in the whole country." She was first substi- 
tuted by Chaucer for the heo or he, which was in universal 
use before him, and it is of comparatively recent origin. 
Like that, what, and similar forms, it represents the true 
neuter of Old English, to which class may perhaps be as- 
signed, also, one other English word, athwart, formed after 
the same fashion. 

The plural form we has come down to us almost without 
change, but its " majestic " use for a single person is com- 
paratively modern. Lord Coke, at least, tells us that it was 
first so employed by King John, who introduced Nos and 
Noster into grants, confirmations, &c, or, as some writer 
has quaintly observed, thus found out the art of multiply- 
ing himself, whereas his predecessors had been content with 
ego and mens. Another explanation of this extraordinary 
substitution is, that kings include in this we all their officers 



246 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

and servants, and thus express the collected will of many in 
one, as editors include all who think like them, and may be 
charitably supposed to utter not their individual opinions, 
but those of a party, or at least of many. But what shall 
we say of our own we ? 

There is a better excuse for the substitution of you instead 
of the old thou. When it was first introduced — probably at 
the ceremonious, etiquette-loving court of Byzantium — 
it was deemed a courtesy and a sign of uncommon re- 
spect, thus to treat one as if he were or represented a large 
number ; as if he were, in fact, a " host in himself." Be- 
sides, there is in all respectful ways of addressing others a 
perceptible tendency to avoid the direct personality ; hence 
the frequent use which the polite French makes of the in- 
definite on for the direct vous. In our own day there has 
been superadded to these reasons for the use of you, a third : 
the desire to be equally courteous to all, which has led to 
the gradual supremacy of that pronoun, which more than 
any other savors of republican equality. It has, however, 
undergone strange changes before it obtained that general 
recognition. At first you, or rather ye, as it was then ex- 
clusively written, was considered more polite than thou, and 
thus often mixed up with the singular. Chaucer uses it 
thus (2256),— 

" And if ye will not so, my lady sweete, 
Than pray I tke, give me my love 
Thou blisful lady dere," 

and in 842, — 

" And 2/e, Sir Clerk, let be your shamefastedness." 

This use of the plural pronoun instead of the singular was 
by no means contemporaneous in French, nor in any of the 
other Northern languages, and hence some have supposed 
that the English may have borrowed it from the Dutch, 
where it was already common. For some time, however, 
the two pronouns remained side by side, and thou was not 
set aside for religious purposes until a much later date. 



PRONOUNS. 247 

Even in the " Morte d' Arthur " of the year 1485, you and thou 
occur in the same line and addressed to the same person. 
You was used regularly for the singular as early as 1503, 
by Sir Thomas More, who says : — 

" Farewell my daughter lady Margarete, 
God wotte full oft it grieved hath my mynde, 
That ye should go where we should seldom mete, 
Now I am gone and have left you behynde." 

But that it cannot yet have obtained fully seems to appear 
from John Despanter's Latin Grammar, who, in 1517, crit- 
icizes sharply those who used it, and whom he calls " dos- 
citatores." In the sixteenth and seventeenth century it is 
found without exception, we believe, in prefaces to books, 
where the author addresses his public. Then, however, a 
change occurred, and it was not considered as quite so re- 
spectful ; at least, William Lee, bookseller, who published 
in 1640 a book entitled " Youth's Behaviour ; or Decencie 
in Conversation among Men," says distinctly : " You should 
be used to persons of lesser rank, Thou and Thee to friends 
and superiors." It may be, however, that he, like many of 
his profession, was but a lover of the " good olden times," 
and preferred stating his wishes and preferences in the 
shape of actual facts. 

There arose early, besides, a difference between ye, the 
Anglo-Saxon nominative of the pronoun, spelt ye, and you, 
derived from the Anglo-Saxon dative and accusative eow. 
Chaucer observes the distinction with such uniformity, that 
we may well assume it to have been the rule in his day. 
At a later time, however, ye gradually usurped the place of 
the accusative, and gave peculiar force to that case. Thus 
Shakespeare says in " Henry VIII : " — 

M The more shame for ye ; holy men I thought ye" 

and Milton almost invariably employs it so, e. g, — 
" His wrath which one day will destroy ye both," 

and — 

u I call ye and declare ye now returned 
Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth." 



248 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

At the same time ye seems constantly to have been used to 
express extreme familiarity, and thus it became gradually 
comic and burlesque. Thus we find it in the Prologue, — 

" Show your small talents and let that suffice ye, 
But grow not vain upon it, I advise ye" 

and in Pope's " Eiad," (XXII.),— 

" Yet for my sons I thank ye, Gods ! 't was well, 
Well have they perished, for in fight they fell." 

Finally, the same form occurs occasionally now as a mere 
expletive, and, naturally, only in familiar style, as when Dr. 
King uses it, (p. 574), — 

*' He '11 laugh ye, dance ye, sing ye, laugh, look gay, 
And ruffle all the ladies in his play." 

It is curious, and to the observant student very suggestive, 
to notice in how many different ways different nations pre- 
fer to address one another among themselves. The Ger- 
man has not less than three distinct modes : he treats the 
superior of great distinction with a title instead of a pro- 
noun, and speaks to him as der Herr Graf, "the Lord 
Count," but with the verb falls back to the ordinary way of 
using the third person plural. This, the pronoun Sie, he 
employs for all above or on an equality with him ; whilst he 
grants the friendly Du, our thou, to those he loves and holds 
dear ; the lower dependent or subordinate is occasionally 
still reminded of his inferiority by a rude Er. The French 
revolution abolished this degrading Er in the army, the Revo- 
lution of 1848 made an end to the half contemptuous Du, 
and now Sie remains almost the exclusive mode of address 
for all classes of society. The Danes follow the German 
rule, but prefer the singular of the verb. The Dutch have 
so entirely substituted you for thou, that the latter has com- 
pletely dropped out of the language, and the form of the 
second person of the verb is hardly ever given in grammars 
even, unless it be for the imperative. Hence in poetry 
they address the sun and the moon and all lifeless objects 



PRONOUNS. 249 

alike with you, and the plural of the verb ; and even the 
actor in his monologue has to become a plural to himself. 
It sounds strange indeed to the foreigner, to hear them use 
one and the same pronoun for God and king, wife, child, 
and friend, heaven, and earth, and horse, and dog. The 
Russian and the Greek use thou for all ordinary purposes, 
but you, as do almost all nations now, when they are particu- 
larly polite. The Pole is still faithful to his ancient thou, 
but he adds courteously the word for Lord or Lady, saying, 
Mash Pan, " Thou Lord." The Italian, Spaniard, and Por- 
tuguese, all employ the most indirect way of addressing each 
other, substituting expressions like " Your Mercy," " Your 
Grace," and their representative pronouns for our you, actu- 
ally saying to each other, " How is she to-day % " " I thank 
her." The Persian uses exceptionally our you, for gener- 
ally all over the Orient the custom prevails of employing 
instead a mode of circumlocution which avoids all direct- 
ness so repugnant to Oriental courtesy. Hence they pre- 
fer saying, " The gentleman says," or, " The son of my Lord 
shall be served." They is, like she, it, thou, and their, simply 
a part of the Anglo-Saxon demonstrative, used as a per- 
sonal pronoun. 

The possessive pronouns are in English, as in most 
known languages, nothing more than derivative formations 
of the personal pronouns, and it matters little whether they 
are, as some maintain, the genitives of the latter, or, as 
others believe, adjectives made from them by the addition 
of en. So much is certain, that their form and meaning 
were for some time of a most undecided character. Thus 
Wickliffe employs oure and youre not as possessive pronouns, 
but as genitives plural, and says oure dreed, the dread of 
us, and youre feer, the fear of you. What is more interest- 
ing for our day, is the gradual shortening which mine and 
thine have undergone in former ages, and are still under- 
going. Originally they were probably the only forms used ; 
afterwards, and for some generations, the full forms were 



250 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

preferred before vowels, and the shortened forms my and 
thy before consonants, in order to avoid the meeting of 
many consonants. Sir John Mandeville already has (59), 
" Thin hosen " and " thi schon," and (179), " My wif " and 
"myn husbond." Chaucer observes the rule, saying, — 

" Rise up my wif, my love, my lady fre," (10012), 

and — 

" With thyn eighen Columbine, ,, (10015). 

In our Bible version we read accordingly (Psalms lv. 13) : 
" But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine 
acquaintance," and the same distinction is occasionally ob- 
served by modern writers. Thus we find Hamlet giving 
this advice, — 

" Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice." 

Sir Walter Scott says, — 

" Thine ardent symphony sublime and high," 
and Byron has, — 

" Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow." 

Generally, however, but little attention is given to the dif- 
ference between the two forms ; on the contrary, even the 
shortened my is too long for modern haste, and must needs 
give way to me, simply. Fenimore Cooper observes on 
the difference between the old pronunciation, preserved in 
the States, and the more recent, that " my horse, my dog, 
the usual American mode, and me horse, me dog, the Eng- 
lish counterpart, are equally wrong, the first by an affected 
egotism, the last from offensive arrogance." The wrong may 
exist, but the reasons are hardly stated with fairness. The 
English usage has at least this advantage, that it pre- 
sents a means of emphasizing and dignifying the pronoun, 
of which the Americans are deprived by their uniform pro- 
nunciation. It is wasteful to say my servant when no other 
servant is spoken of, but there is advantage in the difference 
between " my Lord," addressed to the Creator, and the ordi- 
nary " my lord " given to peers, the orthodox pronuncia- 
tion of which now is " me Lud." 



PRONOUNS. 251 

Ours and yours are, among the illiterate, liable to even 
more violent ill-treatment, being changed into ourn and 
yourn, and yet apologists have been found for this vul- 
garism also, which they claim, like most vulgarisms, and 
especially Americanisms, to be but a well-preserved relic of 
former days. It cannot be denied that formerly our own 
and your own were often thus contracted, and it is not im- 
possible that this may have given rise to the provincialism 
above mentioned. Master R. Laneham, keeper of the 
Council Chamber, and a traveled man, tells us of some 
person who presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth at 
Kenilworth, in which he took even greater liberties, for 
after praying for her Majesty's perpetual felicity, he finishes 
with the humblest submission of him and hizzen. His'n 
and her'n may have had the same origin, being contracted; 
from his own and her own, though the use of the dative 
plural in Old English, hisum and herum, might possibly 
have had the same effect. The old Bible version has 
" The kyngdom of hevenes is herumP They survive now 
only in affected style, as when Sam Slick says, " Drinking 
beer out of my pot and refusing his'n," or in old-fashioned 
songs like the Berkshire ditty, — 

" But V other young maiden looked sly at me, 
And from her seat she ris'n — 
Let 's you and I go our own way, 
And we '11 let she go shis'n." 

Its is one of the most recent words of the English lan- 
guage, and as such, a striking illustration of what may be 
called the life of an idiom. It was utterly unknown in the 
days of true Old English, because as soon as a thing was 
regarded as the possessor of another thing, it became to 
that extent personified, and the personal pronouns his and 
her were employed. Spenser has no its in his works ; in 
fact, it was unknown in the days of Queen Elizabeth and 
King James. Mandeville shows his ignorance of such a 
word by saying, " Of that cytee bereth the contree his name," 



252 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

(256), and Chaucer has: "But loke that it (the whele,) 
have his spokes alle," (Canterbury Tales, 7838). Bacon says, 
" Learning has his infancy, when it is but beginning and 
almost childish ; then his youth when it is luxuriant and 
juvenile ; then his strength of years, when it is solid and 
reduced, and lastly his old age, when it waxeth dry and ex- 
hausted." Evidently its is wanting, and every time it is 
needed, supplied by his. Hence we find the same substi- 
tution repeatedly in the Bible: " The fig-tree putteth forth 
her green figs " (Sol. Song, ii. 13), and " the tree is known 
by his fruit " (Matt. xii. 33). In fact, this remarkable pro- 
noun occurs in all but five times in our Bible version, which 
generally substitutes his or of it, as, " It (another beast) had 
three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it '* 
(Daniel vii. 5), or thereof, as, " Sufficient unto the day is the 
evil thereof' 9 These remedies seem to have been early ap- 
plied, for we find already in the very ancient " Auturs of 
Arther," (Camden Soc. 11-13,) what is probably the oldest 
instance of such a substitution : — 

" For I will speke with the sprete, 
And of hit woe wille I wete, 
Gif that I may hit boles bete 
And the body bare." 

It was probably from the somewhat anomalous use of it, 
simply, instead of of it, that the modern its was derived. 
The earliest case of it being used as a possessive pronoun, 
occurs in the year 1548, in the Bible, where we find " The 
love and deuocion towardes God also hath it infancie and 
hath it commyng forward in growth of age." Sir Thomas 
More generally writes it hit, when he uses it thus as a pos- 
sessive pronoun derived from it. Ben Jonson surprises 
us by writing " need will have its course," though the word 
itself is not even mentioned in his grammar. These early 
cases of its must, however, be viewed with great caution. 
Thus we are generally told that Shakespeare has it three 
or four times ; in " Measure for Measure " (I. 2), we find 
" Heaven grant us its peace," and — 



PRONOUNS. 253 

" each following day- 
Became the next day's master, till the last 
Made former wonders its" 

but the learned Mommsen discovered that these readings 
only occur in the later editions, which did not appear 
until 1623, twelve years after the publication of the Bible. 
Even Milton evidently preferred the substitutes, as in the 
lines, — 

" The fig-tree spreads her arms, and daughters grow about the mother- 
tree." — Paradise Lost, IX. 1100. 

He has its but twice, (Paradise Lost, I. 254, and IV. 813,) 
and avoids it in many places, though in his day it was already 
popular. Shakespeare had, in his day, shown a repugnance 
to him and her for the neuter idea, by carefully avoiding 
the occasion for the use of the pronoun, and the idea itself 
probably did not exist in the mind of these authors. This 
shows beautifully the intimate connection between the mind 
of a people and their language, and the reciprocal action. 
For the use of its not merely changed the form of English, 
but actually modified the manner of thinking. Dean 
Trench has called attention to the fact that a careful 
sifting and thorough investigation of the mere words of a 
literary work would as certainly assign it its time in Eng- 
lish literature, as the same process has done for ancient 
literature, when applied to the works of ancient writers. 
Thus Chatterton's poems, which pretended to have been 
written by a monk living in the eleventh century, could 
have been stamped as a forgery upon the ground of a 
single line : " Life and all its goods I scorn." Any well- 
read scholar would have known that the word its did not 
exist for several hundred years after the assumed date 
of the work. 

It is a peculiarity of English that it has no reflexive pro- 
noun, and that neither the Anglo Saxon nor the Norman 
French have ever fully supplied the want The only sub- 
stitute is found in the words self and own. The former is 



254 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

strangely connected with the possessive pronoun, and its 
etymology has given rise to many discussions among gram- 
marians. Perhaps no stronger proof of the difficulty of 
the subject can be adduced, than the fact that even the 
great Jacob Grimm acknowledged the necessity of chang- 
ing altogether opinions he had formerly held on the subject. 

In Anglo-Saxon, self was coupled with the personal pro- 
noun, and produced combinations like ic self thurh me selfne 9 
"thro* me self," from me self urn, and mm selfes beam, " my own 
child." This constant use, varied only in a few, probably 
ill-copied instances, proves clearly that self was not, as is 
frequently stated, a noun. Soon after the decline of the 
pure Saxon, however, self reappears combined with the pos- 
sessive pronoun, and has, in Old English at least, become 
indeclinable. A few traces of the old declension show 
themselves occasionally in forms like / myselven, he him- 
selven, and ye yourselven, but evidently without any differ- 
ence in signification. 

This constant combination led naturally to the result that 
self began to be looked upon as a noun, preceded by a pos- 
sessive pronoun — an impression which was still further 
strengthened by the independent employment of the com- 
pound pronoun, as when Chaucer already says : " This is to 
sayn, myself hath been the whippe." From that date self 
appears fully established as a noun, and is used even with- 
out a pronoun, as in the line of Moore's poem, — 
" Too strong for Allah's self to burst," 

and hence come still more recent, inelegant phrases, as my 
own self and your own dear self 

Himself and themselves must originally have been object- 
ive cases, with the two words in apposition to each other. 
Hence the tendency to avoid such awkward and obscure 
forms, and to substitute for them hisself and theirselves, 
made in analogy with the other forms, but not admitted into 
classic English, and hissel and theirselves in the dialects of 
the North of England. 



PRONOUNS. 



255 



Pronouns enable us in another aspect to establish the 
claims of our English, the study of which is so sadly neg- 
lected for the benefit of Latin and Greek, to a full equality 
at least of etymological interest with the ancient languages. 
These, we are told, have a beautiful system of suggesting 
by the initials the nature of the pronoun ; the demonstra- 
tive pronouns having — 

In Greek a t : t<5 the interrogative, now n : 

touto, 

TOVoS, 7TO<r05, 



TO 40?, 


7T010S, 


TOT€, 


wore, 


tws; 


n-ws, 




7T0V, 




irdrepos, 




noOev, 


In Latin a t : talis, 


the interrogative qu : qualis, 


tantus, 


quantus, 


tot, 


quot, 


tarn, 


quam, 


&c., 


quomodo, 




quorsum. 



But we ought, surely, not to forget that the Germanic lan- 
guages have a similar system, in noways inferior, and based 
mainly upon their characteristic sound, the aspirate. This is 
represented in modern English, in spite of all changes and 
losses, by instances like the following : — 

He, his, him, The, ( German) Der, Who, ( German) Wer. 

Hit, here,* That, those, Dieser, What, whose, 

Here and its compounds, There and its compounds, Where and itscomp. Wo. 



(H)now, 




(W)how, 




Hence, 


Thence, 


Whence, 




Hither, 


Thither, 


Whither, 




&c, 


They, them, 
This, these, 


their, Whom, 






Thus, 


Da, 






Though, 








Then, 


Dann, When, 


Wann. 






Whether, 


Weder. 






Why, 


Warum. 






Which, 


Welcher. 


At the same 


time the ancient form of English 


in Anglo- 



256 



STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 



Saxon enables us to see the discreet economy with which 
the old pronoun has been made subservient to all the prac- 
tical purposes of modern wants. Thus the Anglo-Saxon 
interrogative pronoun hva was declined in the following 
manner : — 



MASC. 

Nom. hva, 

Gen. 

Dat. 

Ace. hvone, 

Abl. 



hvaes, 
hvam, 

hvi, 



NEUT. 

hvaet, 
hvaet, 



and from this complex scheme we obtain all our pronouns, 
thus : — 



MASC. 

Nom. who, 

Gen. 

Obj. whom, 

Abl. 



whose, 



NEUT. 

what, 
what, 



why, (adverb,) 

to which we only add which, from Anglo-Saxon hveleih, cor- 
responding to svaleik, our such, and whether, from Anglo- 
Saxon hw cider, formerly used to express — which of two, 
but now employed only as a conjunction. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HOW WE COUNT. 

" Take thy fingers." 

There is no class of words of more interest for the his- 
tory of nations than the numerals, for they afford us one 
of the most striking evidences of the unity of the race, 
divided as it now is into so many nations. Men to this 
day use everywhere the same way of counting. From the 
nation that leads civilization at the head of all Christendom, 
to the very dregs of humanity, the heathen cannibal, men 
have the same system of numerals. Even the forms differ 
so little, that we probably only need a better knowledge of 
the laws of sound and the history of words to find that they 
all belong to one and the same family. Hence they are 
even now looked upon as one of the safest criterions by 
which to judge of an original relationship between lan- 
guages. Where they resemble each other in any two idi- 
oms, there, certainly, a close tie of common descent or com- 
mon fate is soon discovered. They aid us as some casual 
expression which flits across the face of a long-forgotten 
friend, or the use of some peculiar but well-known phrase, 
reveals to us all of a sudden the companion of former days, 
or the son of a kinsman. Nations seem, for some impor- 
tant reason, to adhere with uncommon tenacity to the forms 
of their numerals, and to no class of words can the well- 
known words of Suetonius be more forcibly applied : " Tu 
enim, Ccesar, civitatem dare potes hominibus, verbis non potes, 
inquit Capito" (De Ulustr. Gr. XXIII.) For no misfor- 
17 



258 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

tune and no conquest has ever yet deprived a nation of its 
numerals, whatever may have been the fate of other parts 
of its language. Thus it is in our English. In spite of the 
Norman-French conquest, and in spite of the long rule of 
Norman sovereigns, not only have we safely kept all our 
Saxon numerals, but only two foreign forms have obtained 
admission to their number. The Anglo Saxon possessed 
no ordinal corresponding to its cardinal two, and used, in- 
stead of it, the word other, as is still done in the German 
andertkalb. Hence the Normans found it comparatively 
easy to introduce and to obtain ready admission for their 
word second. This comes from the Latin sequor, to follow, 
and retains always something of the meaning of its Roman 
ancestor, as when we propose to " second a question," and 
thus follow the first mover, or when we condemn the " second 
in a duel," because he followed his principal to the place of 
combat. Its application to time has another and very curi- 
ous origin. The Romans, it is well known, facilitated the 
operation of counting by the use of little pebbles, calcula, 
from which we derive our own word, to calculate. One 
of these, a peculiarly small pebble, was called scrupulum, 
and was used to denote what we also call a " minute " peb- 
ble, now a minute. When they proceeded to a subdivis- 
ion they denoted one sixtieth of a minute by a secundum 
scrupulum, and thus we obtained, after the omission of the 
word scrupulum, the name of second for the same small 
space of time. The only other numeral of foreign origin 
in our language is million, from the Latin mille, with an 
augmentative syllable superadded. 

This faithful and steady adherence to our numerals is 
perhaps partly to be ascribed to their small number, of 
which superficial observers have no conception. There is 
no nation on earth that counts beyond the ten fingers of the 
nands. They gave, and still give, the only mode of count- 
ing. A trace of this original manner survives in modern 
English : there is a custom preserved in technical language 



HOW WE COUNT. 259 

at least, although going out of use in ordinary conversation, 
to call the first ten numbers digits, from the Latin word for 
" finger." It was formerly universally so employed, and we 
read in Sir Thomas Brown's " Vulgar Errors : " " Not only 
the numbers 7 and 9, from considerations abstruse, have been 
extolled by most, but all or most other digits have been as 
mystically applauded." It is well known that certain nations 
of antiquity did not even go so far as ten, but were content 
with counting only the number of fingers of one hand. 
Thus, when Homer alludes to a shepherd who counts his 
sheep, he employs the word 7re/x7r€o-#at, as if he were to say 
" he fived them," and in other authors we find in like man- 
ner, 7r€/x7ra£eiv used to define counting up to five. Even 
now some tribes of Indians go no farther, and we are as- 
sured by modern travelers that there are savages whose 
numbers go only as far as 1, 2, and 3, at which point their 
language fails, and, instead of four, they employ a word 
which means at the same time " many " and " incalculable 
multitudes." Then the connection only can show in which 
of its different meanings it is to be taken. 

Nations have, of course, numerals beyond the number of 
fingers, but after ten they are invariably compounds, thus 
showing that after all we possess genuine names of num- 
bers only up to ten. Our own numerals afford, in this as- 
pect, peculiar information as to the manner in which this 
remarkable class of words has generally been formed. Our 
one is a derivative of the Anglo-Saxon an, so strikingly re- 
sembling the Greek lv, and the Latin unus, as to suggest 
at once their common descent from the Aryan stock. In 
German the radical ein serves to this day to designate unity, 
as well as the indefinite sense of the noun which it pre- 
cedes. In English, however, at a very early period, the orig- 
inal an branched off into a full form to express the pre- 
cise meaning of the numeral, and a shortened one to serve 
as an indefinite article. The former has now assumed the 
form of one, but retained, even in Old English, so much of 



260 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

the original, that our any was then written ony, and in the 
oldest MSS. had even its two genders. Thus we find, 
"And gif oni other onie cumen her ongenes," which we have 
to translate : "And if any man or any woman come against 
her." The shortened form is now an, which, however, in 
its turn, has undergone a farther reduction, and before con- 
sonants at least is always a. Our Bible version uses an 
indiscriminately before vowels and consonants, and even 
we respect an aspirate h, and speak of " an humble faith." 
Our two is derived from the Anglo-Saxon ivd, which in 
like manner corresponds closely with the Greek Svo, and 
the Latin duo, whilst in German the prevailing tendency of 
changing the dental into a sibilant, has resulted in zwei. 
Of its modern forms but one is really important. The 
ancient tvd had a dual, twegen. The dual, however, is 
one of those inflections which all languages drop as they 
become modernized, so that even the once so important and 
useful Greek dual does not appear in the New Testa- 
ment, simply because it was no longer in use in common 
Greek. Thus, also, the dual, found so largely and so fully 
developed in Old Norse and Old German, has utterly disap- 
peared as a grammatical form. A few dual words only 
have survived and serve now as evidences of former ages ; 
among them the form of twain. We still use it fully 
when we speak of " cleft in twain" Byron has it regu- 
larly in — 

" Ye seek it of the twain of least respect and interest," 
and Longfellow uses it in the same manner, saying, — 

" Let there be no further strife nor enmity 
Between us twain." 

The true nature of the dual seems very early to have been 
forgotten by the people, or we would not meet so soon with 
the contracted form twin, and its absurd or at least most in- 
correct plural, twins. We shorten it still farther in twilight 
and from the compound between we derive a preposterous 
superlative betwixt. The former was once used with a 
instead of be, as in Chaucer's lines : — 



HOW WE COUNT. 261 

" Thy wife and thou mote hange atwynne, 
For that betwyt you shall be no synne." — Miller's Tale. 

From the numeral three, recalling to us the rpia, and tria 
of the ancients, the Anglo-Saxons made an ordinal thryd, 
which we have changed, according to the prevailing ten- 
dency to transpose the r, into third. A curious descendant 
of the first form remains, however, in modern English. 
Certain districts were, it seems, of old divided into thirds, 
and these were called " third things," in the old sense of 
the word thing. Thus we find, in Magna Charta, a thrithing 
already spoken of, and the same term is repeated in Stat. 
21, Henry III. c. 10, (1260,) and from it are probably derived 
the three Ridings of Yorkshire, the initial th having been lost 
at an early day. Our Saxon fathers formed words for the 
numerals up to nine, but there their power of invention 
seems to have abandoned them, for ten is not an original 
word. It comes from the Saxon verb tynan, to close, to 
shut in or up, expressive of the simple fact that when the 
calculation had gone on to the extent of the ten fingers, 
one after another having been turned in, both hands were 
found " closed " or " shut in." Nor is this use of the ancient 
word so entirely obsolete, that it could not be proved even 
from modern usage. There are very few forms, in the 
purely Saxon districts at least, of which a certain portion 
does not still bear the name of tyning, e. g., the Middle 
Tyning or the Upper Tyning. The designation arose, like 
the more modern close, from the fact that these lands were 
carefully inclosed and cultivated, unlike the common, the 
not inclosed lands, which lay waste. From the same verb 
was derived the noun tun, our town ; at first it meant noth- 
ing more than an inclosure, and as such we have already 
seen it was used in our Bible version, where WicklifFe sub- 
stitutes it for the word farm. More recently still we have 
had recourse to the same root, when our new railway wants 
required the word tunnel, sl diminutive of tun, and meaning 
an " inclosed way." 



262 



STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 



Before proceeding to the larger compound numerals, we 
insert here, for purposes of comparison, the first ten numer- 
als in the kindred languages which form the family of our 
English : — 



Eng. 


Welsh. 


A. Sax. 


OldH. Ger. 


Mod. Ger. 


Gothic. 


One, an, 


a, Un, 


An, 


Ein, 


Ein, 


Ain, 


Two, 


Dau, 


Tu, twa, 


Zuene, 


Zwei, 


Tvai, 


Three, 


Tri, tair, 


Thry, 


Thri, 


Drei, 


Threis, 


Four, 


Pedwar, 


Feower, 


Fior, 


Vier, 


Fidwor, 


Five, 


Pump, 


Fif, 


Finf, 


Funf, 


Fimf, 


Six, 


Chwech, 


Seox, 


Sehs, 


Sechs, 


Saihs, 


Seven, 


Saith, 


Seofan, 


Sipim, 


Sieben, 


Sibun, 


Eight, 


Wyth, 


Eahta, 


Ahto, 


Acht, 


Ahtau, 


Nine, 


Naw, 


Nigon, 


Niun, 


Neun, 


Niun, 


Ten. 


Deg. 


Tyn, tig. 


Zehan. 


Zehn, 


Taihun. 



A similar correspondence is shown to exist throughout the 
whole Indo-European class of languages. 

It is well known that our eleven is simply the an lif, one 
left, of our Saxon fathers, as this was really the case after 
both hands had been closed ; in the same manner twelve is 
the contracted form of twa lif, two left, and these two nu- 
merals afford us in their simpler form an additional evi- 
dence of the duodecimal method of counting, which long 
prevailed among Scandinavian and Old German nations. 
Hence England has always had a small and a great hun- 
dred, — 100 and 120, — and the original ton contains yet 
2400 lbs., in contrast with the modern or small ton of 2000 
lbs. After twelve the numerals are simply compounds of ten 
and the lower numbers, until we arrive at twenty, which con- 
sists of the dual twain, and the old word tig, corresponding 
to the root in Se/ca and decern, and meaning ten. Instead 
of twenty we still use frequently the old Celtic word score — 
one of the few true Celtic forms that have held their own in 
our language. It is a relic of the fondness the Celts had for 
counting by twenties, which survives in a very striking 
manner in the French substitute of Quatre- Vingt, four 
twenties, for eighty, soixante-dix for seventy, and all 
similar formations. Our Bible has "fourscore and ten ; " 



HOW WE COUNT. 263 

Shakespeare uses, in " Measure for Measure," " ninescore 
and seventeen pounds," and Byron speaks of " six of my 
fourscore years." The frequent use of the verb to score, 
for counting, arises probably from the manner in which, in 
the days of Old England, archers called the distance of 
twenty yards a score, and thus counted up their relative 
merits. In quarantine the substitution of a Latin term 
for the Saxon forty, shows the danger we incur by using 
foreign words without adhering faithfully to their original 
meaning. In former days the time of trial for persons 
coming from regions where contagious diseases prevailed, 
was forty days ; and this gave rise, in the Mediterranean, 
where this precaution against pestilence was most general, 
to the use of the word quarantaine. Now we have forgot- 
ten the true signification of quaranta, and speak ludicrously 
of a " quarantine of ten days." Hundred is a compound of 
hund, which meant either an exact number of hundred 
already, or merely served to designate a large, round sum ; 
it is the same as the root in rpiaKovra and centum, as we 
may see at a glance by a comparison of the English hundred 
in our shires, with the Canton of the Swiss Confederacy. 
To this was added red, which is simply our rod or reed, an 
instrument universally used by the Anglo-Saxons to mark 
by notches cut in it the number of times they wished to 
remember. It is well known that this custom is by no 
means extinct, either in Scandinavian countries, or in the 
northern parts of the kingdom. 

If we have, in common with all nations, made no pro- 
gress in the formation of numerals, we have at least learnt 
to write them much better than our ancestors. The oldest 
inscriptions on the marble of Italy or the granite of Scan- 
dinavia, whether they contain weighty records of early races 
or mystic accounts of Northern gods, all unite in one com- 
mon way of marking numbers simply by straight lines, such 
as could most easily be carved in stone or cut in wood. It 
was in Italy first that the custom of the Greeks to use their 



264 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

vowels for that purpose, obtained most largely, and as the 
Greek v is the Latin F", the Romans adopted this, the fifth 
vowel, as meaning five, retaining for the preceding numbers 
the ancient strokes, I, II, III, and IIII. Improving on this, 
they placed two Vs one over the other, J, and contracting 
the figure in one, counted X, equal to ten. as the initial 
letter of centum, became the sign for hundred, and as the 
ancient Roman alphabet was not written in round but in 
square lines, the lower half of the old-fashioned C resem- 
bled the later L sufficiently to let this letter stand for the 
half hundred, or fifty. M became, as the initial letter of 
mitte, the sign for a thousand, and D, it is said, meant di- 
midium, or the half of thousand. These signs, however, 
long used for all purposes in England, had in their turn 
to give way to those which we now employ. These have 
been introduced through the Arabs, who themselves prob- 
ably obtained them from the eastern part of India. They 
employed them in their admirable researches, mainly for 
the purposes of astrology, and afterwards for arithmetical 
problems. After they had conquered Spain, they intro- 
duced them, with the many branches of knowledge which 
Christian Europe owes to their faithful stewardship of 
the treasures of ancient lore, into the schools and uni- 
versities of the Peninsula. There it was that Gerbert, 
studying Theology and the Black Art in the halls of Sala- 
manca, became acquainted with them in the tenth century, 
and learnt to know their value. He afterwards rose rapidly 
in the Church, and when he bore at last the triple crown 
as Sylvester II., he introduced, with other fruits of his 
learning, the use of these Arabic signs throughout Christen- 
dom. They are found earliest in Astronomical Tables, then 
merchants discovered their great usefulness ; from 1300 we 
meet with them in inscriptions, but not before 1400 in 
manuscripts. How slowly they must have made their way 
into popular use may be judged from the fact that a horn- 
book, at least as old as 1570, and like all books of the kind, 



ARTICLES. 265 

intended for the humbler classes, concludes with the Lord's 
Prayer and the Roman numerals, the Arabic numerals being 
omitted. 

As one of the pronouns is used as definite article in 
English, and one of the numerals as indefinite article, it 
may not be amiss to add here a few remarks concerning the 
history and nature of that mysterious class of words, the 
articles. They belong so exclusively to modern languages, 
and throw so much light upon the transition of those de- 
rived from ancient idioms, that they have ever been a favor- 
ite topic with linguists, without being, on that account, 
any more satisfactorily explained than other subjects of 
philologic controversy. This only is universally admitted — 
that they have taken the place and perform, in part at least, 
the duty of the elaborate system of inflections' in Greek and 
Latin. It is well known that the former possessed only a 
so-called definite article, 6, fy to, whilst of an indefinite 
article no other trace is found but the equivocal ns, made 
enclitic. The Latin had really no article at all. Both 
these languages, however, had a very complete system of 
inflections for nouns, in their numerous declensions, most 
of which consisted in the addition of pronouns, by means 
of connecting vowels, to the end of the root. Thus avrjp 
became di/Spds, and homo became hominis. In the Romance 
languages these varied terminations were lost at the time 
of the conquest of Rome and Roman colonies under the 
influence of causes identical with those which produced a 
similar loss of Anglo-Saxon inflections after the Norman 
conquest of England. The German tribes who made them- 
selves masters of Gaul, Spain, and Italy, would not and 
could not learn these nice distinctions of sound, and curtly 
abandoned them. As soon, however, as new languages be- 
gan to be formed out of the surviving Latin elements, and 
the German idioms that were mixed up with them, the 
necessity for such inflections became apparent once more, 
and was felt by all. Following, then, the example set already 



266 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

by later Roman authors, certain words suggestive of the 
same ideas formerly represented by declensions, &c, were 
chosen and used ; but instead of being added at the end of 
words which had generally lost their original termination, 
and with it their vitality, these words were placed before the 
noun and hence called prepositions. All the Eomance lan- 
guages followed the same plan of choosing for this purpose 
the demonstrative pronoun ille, which gave the French le 
and la, the Italian il, lo, and la, and the Spanish el, la, lo, and 
the numeral units, which gave a similar form to the daugh- 
ters of Latin. The same causes led to precisely the same 
results in English, also. The Anglo-Saxon had, like the 
Latin, a large number of inflections for its nouns, which the 
Danish and the Norman conquerors alike rejected. As Old 
English arose, the old demonstrative pronoun se, seo, thaet, 
was chosen naturally to act as a definite article, having been 
used already in Anglo-Saxon very generally for that pur- 
pose. In Semi- Saxon it had lost almost all of its forms 
except thaet, the remaining cases being used but rarely, and 
the declension having become less distinct. It appeared, 
therefore, very early in Old English as the, of all genders, 
though with different case endings, and only in middle Eng- 
lish became absolutely of all cases and genders. Thus we 
have obtained our article the. In like manner the Anglo- 
Saxon numeral an was employed with the meaning of an 
indefinite article branching off from the fuller form one, as 
has been shown above. The first instance of its use in this 
aspect occurs in u Layamon's Brut," but it does not seem to 
have come into general use until the middle of the thirteenth 
century. Before that time the indefinite article was gener- 
ally expressed by the use of sum, our some, or, as in the 
ancient languages, by the omission of any designation. 

The rare and judicious use of the article in English is 
one of the points in which its beautiful simplicity is best 
shown. In its proper omission, especially, whenever the 
sense of the noun is not limited or determined, lies an ex- 



ARTICLES. 267 

cellence of English even over Greek, where it is often used 
without giving additional weight or conferring a clearer 
meaning to the noun which it accompanies. This beauty 
becomes more striking yet, when we compare with it the 
use which the nearest relative of English, the German, 
makes of the article. Its almost insufferable repetition there 
mars often the most beautiful periods, encumbering them 
sadly, and thus depriving the language of the brief and 
impressive energy of her English sister. Few are aware 
under what curious disguises the article occasionally 
makes its appearances in English. There are large num- 
bers of foreign words which presented themselves at the 
time of their introduction, accompanied by their article ; 
the hospitable Englishman adopted them without inquiring 
what was their substance and what their shadow, and thus 
we have virtually nouns possessed of their own article, 
and yet preceded by the English article. In other words, 
again, we have imagined an initial a to be the article, 
and thus deprived them of part of their substance, in 
making them English. This has been, e. g^ the case with 
the Malay word amuco, designating the peculiar intoxication 
from rage and other sources for which the natives of those 
regions are remarkable ; we have fancied the word to con- 
sist of two parts, and although the phrase was at first cor- 
rectly spelled " to run amock" we now call it erroneously 
" to run a much' 9 The same process takes place continu- 
ally in other languages as well as in our own. The French 
have taken the Latin hedera, and called it, for years, hierre, 
as it is still written in Eonsard Vhierre, whilst since the days 
of that poet it has become lierre, and now takes an addi- 
tional le before it. The same origin have la luette, le loriot, 
le loutre, and la lonze, whilst Ven demain has become le lende- 
main, and Apulia has degenerated into la Pouille. 

In the majority of similar cases in English, we can plead 
our pardonable ignorance of foreign forms at the time that 
the latter were introduced into England. This is a suffi- 



268 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

cient plea, for instance, for the double article we employ 
with Arabic words, which contain already the Arabic article 
al, as in Algebra, (al Geber,) alcohol, almanac, alcali, elixir, 
(al Aksir,) alchymy, alcove, admiral, (from almirante,) alem- 
bic, and azimuth. Even the Spanish, through which we have 
obtained these Eastern terms, had already made a similar 
mistake in many instances, and we only follow the example 
it has set us, when we now speak of a lily, instead of the 
Arabic aleli, from Xtipiov, or of a fan from old aban, which 
is still used in the diminutive form abanico. Our saffron 
comes to us likewise from azafran, and azure from the Per- 
sian lazur, which we meet with again in a slightly altered 
form in lapis lazuli. It is curious to observe how the Ital- 
ian arancia has given us the correct orange, whilst the Span- 
iards have been misled by the indefinite article before it, 
and now speak of an orange as of una naranja, repeating it 
a second time. Our word alligator has a somewhat similar 
origin. It comes originally from the Latin lacerta, a lizard, 
in Spanish, el lagarto ; hence Sir Walter Raleigh writes of 
a certain newly discovered land : " But for lagartos it ex- 
ceeded." In Ben Jonson we find the contraction with the 
article already established, as he calls the creature an 
aligarta, and when English sailors landed in America and 
saw there for the first time the crocodile of that Continent, 
they called it very naturally a great lizard, an alligator. 
We ought not to forget, finally, that the name of Spain 
itself has undergone a change of the same kind before it 
assumed its present English garb. It was first, of course, 
Hispania, whence its name in the vernacular of JEspana. 
This, however, was constantly misspelt, until, finally, the 
orthography, imitating the pronunciation, settled somewhat 
into Espayne. Its frequent connection with the preposition 
de, makes it appear in numerous MSS. first as d'Espayne, 
and then as de Spayne, under the misapprehension that the 
letter e belonged to the preposition, and thus it gradually 
shaped itself into simple Spain. 



AKTICLES. 269 

The same plea of ignorance applies to mistakes made in 
French words only when their adoption can be traced to 
the days of great national trouble and profound ignorance. 
This is, however, generally the case ; French was spoken 
only by the higher classes, and by them, even, without great 
correctness ; the spelling was almost arbitrary, and we need 
not wonder, therefore, that the good people made free with 
these foreign terms, which for generations presented to them 
no very clear meaning. The indistinct pronunciation of 
English vowels contributed still farther to dim their per- 
ception, and hence almost any a or e at the beginning of a 
French word was liable to be mistaken for an English 
article. It is thus that avant gave us our van, esprit our 
sprite, and esclandre the double form of scandal and slander. 
The enlumineur, who brought his craft from France and 
adorned missals and romances with his quaint art, be- 
came in England famous as a limner ; the etincelle dwindled 
into a tinsel, etiquette into a ticket, and exemplaire, a sam- 
pler. Among the curious plants brought back by the 
Crusaders from the Orient, was also the bulb that takes its 
name from Ascalon, and was naturalized in France as echa- 
lote ; we again took the e to be an a, and call it now a ska- 
lot, very much like the echine of beef and pork, which is 
now a chine. The skillful escrimer of the French was mis- 
understood in the same manner, and, long before we de- 
rived from it both skirmish and scrimmage, Laertes said to 
Hamlet's king, — 

" the scrimers of their nation 
He swore, had neither motion, guard nor eye, 
If you oppos'd them." — Hamlet, IV. 7. 

The few cases in which we have added the French prepo- 
sition de to our English word are easily understood, though 
the nature of the change is not always perceived at first 
sight. When Homer speaks of wandering Kar da^ohiXov 
\€inwva, we see it translated " thro' flowery meads of aspo- 
del;" in the mean time, however, the Jleur d' affodille had 



270 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

become fashionable, and we see the correct spelling changed 
into daffodil. Thus it happened with the name of Ypres, 
that busy town from which in the times of the Plantagenets 
table-cloths were brought to England which cost as much 
as whole coats of mail, and which became more famous still 
when the great Wolsey was made bishop of its see ; the 
English ear became familiar with the word d* Ypres, and, 
unassisted by the eye, changed it soon after into the modern 
diaper. The common people to this day make free with 
the article, especially in words of foreign origin ; a num- 
berella is heard often enough, and an atomy, substituted for 
a skeleton, has only recently given way to a better knowl- 
edge of the difference between the art itself and its object. 
If the cockney still persists in saying a pottecary, so he 
do not change it into potcarrier, he can plead the possible 
derivation not from a7ro9rJKrj, but from the Italian bottega, 
for which origin the name of Pottinger seems to speak. 

Even the fuller form of the indefinite article an, has not 
escaped this tendency to absorption. In the " Comedy 
of Errors" (III. 2), there is a curious illustration of 
the manner in which this contraction took place. Ellen's 
name being demanded, the answer is, " Nell, Sir, but her 
name and three-quarters, that is, an ell and three-quarters." 
The same process has produced Ned from Edward, and 
Nan, or Nanny, from Ann. The oldest word of the kind 
is probably nag, which represents the Old Danish word an 
off y for which in Old Saxon ehu (equus) was substituted. 
Nale was once very common for an ale, meaning an ale- 
house, and may be found in the " Friar's Tale " — 

" They were inly glad to fill his purse 
And maken him gret festes at the nale. 11 

Nuncle, also, is frequent in Shakespeare, though it repre- 
sents, more probably, mine uncle. Thus in " King Lear," 
(I- 4), - 

" Mark it, Nuncle, 
Have more than thou showest," 



ARTICLES. 271 

to which may be added the good naunt of " Beaumont and 
Fletcher" (I. 606). Mandeville calls our modern eft cor- 
rectly enough an ewte, but both Chaucer and Shakespeare 
substitute for it newt, which was, no doubt, the common 
form in their day. The Old English phrase, for than anes 
(for then once) is now for the nonce. In a few other cases 
the word has lost an initial n, that being mistaken for a 
part of the article. The Anglo-Saxon naugar has thus 
changed into an augur, and the naeddere, which our fore- 
fathers probably derived from Latin natrix, is now an 
adder. The Germans have preserved the original word in 
their natter, as even in Derbyshire a nedder is still com- 
monly used for a snake. Chaucer says still " Like to the 
nadder" but his contemporaries have already eddere in- 
stead. 



CHAPTER XV. 

LIVING WORDS. 

11 It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk 
of a noun and a verb and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to 
hear.' ? — Jack Cade's Charge against the Lord Say. 

It is a quaint saying of that quaint and yet wise people, 
the Chinese, that verbs alone are living words ; they call 
nouns dead words, and all other parts of speech but aux- 
iliaries. They show here, as in almost every branch of 
science and letters, the acute and clear perception of truth, 
which, however, like a golden grain of corn, is by them 
safely stored away and there remains useless, while other 
nations have trustingly confided it to the bosom of their 
mother earth and thus reaped abundant and unceasing har- 
vests. Western races, also, felt the same vitality in the 
verb, though less clearly and tangibly, and sought to give 
expression to it by the honorable name they bestowed 
upon this all-important part of speech. Thus it was to 
the ancient Greeks emphatically to p^/xa, and when they 
referred to it in connection with its mental purpose in 
speech, they spoke of it as tol c/x^u^drara tov Xoyov, the 
one animating power of the sentence, its vital principle, 
without which a sentence can have no satisfactory meaning. 
In English we have adopted here also, as in other gram- 
matical definitions, the Latin expression verbum, the word 
by eminence. But whilst we feel and thus vaguely express 
the superior importance of the verb, we have by no means 
yet agreed as to its precise nature. On the contrary, the 
apparently simple question, " What is the Verb ? " has been, 



LIVING WORDS. 273 

from of old, the subject " of the most ferocious controver- 
sies," as the witty philologist, Home Tooke, expresses it. 
He has not himself escaped the temptation held out by that 
subtle part of speech, and much time and great violence 
is bestowed upon it in his admirable " Diversions.'' This 
only seems to be established beyond any controversy, that 
nouns and verbs are the two essential and indispensable 
parts of speech. We can do without all others, we cannot 
do without these two. The noun has, in point of time, the 
precedence, for we know that the first use made by man of 
his new power of language was to give names to the objects 
around him. These names were nouns. Then only, as he 
saw these objects move and act, as he perceived their form, 
their color, and other qualities, he began, secondly, to as- 
cribe something to them, and his effort to give a name to 
this was the verb. Hence, in order to convey an idea, 
there must at least be given the name of a thing and an 
expression of our sentiments concerning it ; these two suffice 
to make a sentence sufficient for the intercourse between 
man and man. But in proportion as what we think of 
an object is necessarily of far more interest and impor- 
tance than its mere name, by so much is the verb also more 
important than the noun, and hence the original compari- 
son of the noun to the body of man and of the verb to his 
soul. 

Another effect of this peculiar relation between the two 
parts of speech is that the priority in time enjoyed, beyond 
any doubt, by the noun, has led to the opinion, entertained 
by many philologists, that it is the only really original part 
of speech, from which all others have been subsequently 
derived. It cannot be denied that, even in the best devel- 
oped languages, the distinction between noun and verb is 
not yet absolute and at an end, as it is well known that in 
English, for instance, a large proportion of the verbs, about 
4300 in all, are still, in outward appearance at least, simple 
nouns, and show their different meaning only by their 
18 



274 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

place in the sentence. It was the same in ancient lan- 
guages, which we are so apt to consider as entirely differ- 
ent from our own. There, also, in numerous cases, the 
root of a verb was a noun ; to this was added, generally by 
means of a connecting vowel, the oblique case of a pro- 
noun, as in ypa<£-o-/xei' (pi) and pet-i-mus (nos). The 
root conveyed no idea of action or motion, neither of which 
was, or now is, inherent in the verb ; the active power 
rested solely in the person or the agent ; if we take this 
away, the Greek or Latin verb returns at once to the sim- 
ple form of a noun. Thus it was in Anglo-Saxon also, but 
after a while, and especially under the influence of the Nor- 
man Conquest, the full force of the personal pronoun, so 
constantly added to the root, was no longer felt. It be- 
came necessary to give a new form to the verbal char- 
acter of the root, but as in the noun, the inflection was 
no longer added at the end, but placed before it in the 
shape of pronoun and preposition. So in the verb, also, 
modern idioms place the pronoun before it and leave the 
words disconnected. Anglo-Saxon nouns now serve, there- 
fore, as verbs without any change of form, and we use thus 
words like love, hate, fear, dream, sleep, and book. Norman- 
French nouns are not so indiscriminately fit for verbal use ; 
still we have motion, place, notice, minister, pain, place, and 
question as nouns and as verbs. The tendency is to add to 
this class, and among more recent forms may be mentioned 
station, post, provision, and preface. Many occur now and 
then only to resume their allegiance. Milton says " to syl- 
lable men's names ; " but of all authors Shakespeare uses the 
most unbounded liberty in this respect. He says, " This 
(calamity) periods his comfort ; " " Come, sermon me no 
farther," and Portia, Cato's daughter, exclaims , — 

" Think you I am no stronger than my sex, 
Being so fathered and so husbanded! " 

This power of turning almost any noun into a verb has 
been called the most kingly prerogative of the English Ian- 



LIVING WORDS. 275 

guage, and compared to the right of ennobling exercised 
by the Crown. For just because most English verbs of 
purely English descent are still in their simplest form, so 
as not to be distinguished from nouns, they bring up at 
once the full form and power of the object itself, from 
which the action is derived. The effect is still greater 
when the act, or the process itself, is to be suggested as a 
concreted thing or in a picture. This direct and undis- 
guised descent gives our verbs, mainly, the peculiar vigor 
and liveliness for which they are distinguished, and which 
is not a little increased by their simplicity, as contrasted with 
the more ornate, but also less transparent, verbs of other 
languages. How powerful is the effect which the idea 
of man produces when we speak of " manning a vessel ; " 
how strong and suggestive is our language when it expresses 
efforts to " arm a fortress " or to " bridle our passions." 

There must, of course, be a limit to this abundant use of 
nouns as verbs in the very nature of their meaning ; and 
the tendency of our time to increase the stock almost at 
random, can hardly be called an improvement of the lan- 
guage. Lovers of liberty, it is true, see in this promiscuous 
use of nouns and verbs but an effect of the general equaliz- 
ing tendency of our age. Macaulay is occasionally bold in 
impressing new words, as when he says, " The bark of a 
shepherd's dog or the bleat of a lamb," where, heretofore, 
barking and bleating would have been used. New addi- 
tions of the same class are, to bag, to father, to air, to ex- 
perience, and to bayonet, and the most recent coinage now 
accepted is, perhaps, " to progress" By the side of these 
innovations, there appears no reason why we should not 
still speak of the " childing of a woman," or adopt Sylves- 
ter's substitute for deifying, in " some godding fortune, idol 
of ambition." 

The free use made in English of proper names for ver- 
bal purposes is not original to our language, but was al- 
ready well known in antiquity. Thus, when Demosthenes 



276 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

heard that King Philip of Macedon had bribed the oracle* 
in order to dispirit the Athenians, he used the word <jfrtAi7r- 
7rtf€ii/, when he meant to accuse the priestess of favor- 
ing Philip. In later days Antoninus (VI. 30) gave the 
warning fir} a7roKaicrap(x)6fj$, from the foreign name Caesar. 
The Romans themselves were familiar with the process, and 
spoke of Syllaturire, when one meditated to act the part 
of Sylla, and of Grcecari, when men played the Greek in 
fine living and free potations. With us the use, or rather 
the abuse, is so general as hardly to require any explana- 
tion. Few think of VirgiPs Tantalus when they speak 
of tantalizing. Hamlet's " it out-Herod's Herod " is famil- 
iar to all, and so is " Noah's deluge out-deluged." The 
facetious Fuller, in his "Church History" (viii. 21), in 
speaking of Morgan, the sanguinary bishop of Queen Mary, 
says of him that he " out-Bonnered even Bonner himself," 
and in the time of William III. the writer of a pamphlet, 
which produced a great sensation, expressed his wonder 
that the people had not, when Tourville was riding vic- 
torious in the channel, De Witted the nonjuring prelates. 
In the same manner the " Tatler " says, " You look as if 
you were Don Diego } d to the tune of a thousand pounds." 
The Trojan Pandarus has left us the verb to pander, and 
we still say of a blustering, turbulent man that he hectors, 
or that he is a hectoring fellow. 

Nor are modern authors less given to the formation of 
such verbs. Scott speaks in Waverley of a person who 
" captained and Buttler'd him." Southey mentions sirring 
and madaming, and even the polished style of the author 
of " What Will He Do With It," condescends to a de- 
Isaacised Sir Isaac. 

Among Americanisms of the kind we have heard more 
than is complimentary to the Republic of the process of 
lynching, said to be derived from an actually existing Judge 
Lynch. The origin of levanting, or escaping from trouble- 
some creditors by a trip to the East, and of japanning cer- 



LIVING WORDS. 277 

tain articles, is clearly due to the Levant and to Japan. 
Modern additions to this class of verbs are, however, gener- 
ally made after the manner of the Greek, by means of the 
syllable -ize, which generally indicates repetition, as in civil- 
izing, philosophizing, and hellenizing ; the older tantalize is 
imitated by the more recent galvanizing, mesmerizing, and 
macadamizing. 

A tolerably large class of verbs of this kind is made from 
the proper names not of men but of animals ; they are very 
expressive, though often their constant use has made them 
so familiar to us that we hardly remember the associa- 
tion between their present meaning and the animal from 
which they are derived. But even where the sugges- 
tion is no longer so clearly marked, we are apt to feel 
instinctively the original idea, and thus these verbs lend no 
small force and beauty to our language. The ancients 
were not without this valuable class of words, and some of 
their formations have come down to us, as when Horace 
says already similem ludere caprece, and we still speak of 
children who caper about, conveying the idea that they are 
frolicsome like kids. To ape another is a very common 
expression, and the dog has furnished Shakespeare his — 
" I have dogged him like a murderer." 

To rat is, perhaps, rather technical, taken probably from 
the presumed sagacity of rats when they leave a falling 
house or a sinking ship ; but to ferret out a secret is only 
too common and belongs not, like ratting, to one sex only. 
It is strange, and one of those mysteries of language 
which have so ' far defied all investigation, that the num- 
ber of such verbs derived from quadrupeds should be so 
small, whilst birds and their habits have furnished many 
more. We speak of young people going out a-larking, 
when they are very apt to become ravenously hungry, and 
in their cups, at least, unhandsomely to crow over a fallen 
enemy, as the cock sings his chant of victory on his 
dung-heap. The fickleness of man's estimate of the other 



278 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

sex, or, perhaps, rather his just estimate of woman's high 
qualities in contrast with her foibles, is shown in the 
frequency with which he speaks of her as " a duck of a 
woman," and yet is still ready to duck sl common scold in 
a village-pond. When we hear that a man has quailed 
in the face of danger, we are forcibly reminded of the words 
of an old song in "Relig. Antiquities," p. 69, "And thou 
shalt make him cowche as doth a quaile" The old form 
of the hawk's name has given rise to the use of the word 
havoc as a verb by itself, instead of the older form " to do 
havoc," which is sanctioned by both Spenser and Milton. 
The hawk must have been one of the most common birds 
in England from olden times, for we find that his habits, 
evidently familiar to all, haye left many strong marks upon 
our language. Its untiring flight to and fro seems especially 
to have been watched with eager interest, and gave, proba- 
bly, first its name to the wandering occupation of the petty 
dealer who, like the bird, went from house to house, buying 
then as he now sells, and hawking his goods all over the 
country. He became the hawker, whilst his female com- 
panion, or rival, was in Anglo-Saxon times a hawkestere, 
and survives even now in the modern huckster. Another 
allusion to the bird's restless flying about may be found in 
the game of which Halliwell says : " How much running to 
and fro, running forwards, running backwards, in the noble 
game of hockey" Its old name was hawkey. It ought to 
be mentioned, however, that others derive the verb to hawk 
from the German verb hocken, to offer for sale. 

Even the smaller fry of animal life is not without its use- 
fulness for our language. To worm one's way into the con- 
fidence of another, or to worm his secrets out, is a pictu- 
resque expression derived from the old usage of employing 
worm for all that creeps, and thus, also, for snake. The 
custom survives yet in the familiar word blindworm, and 
the disgust which is conveyed by the name of a sneak, or a 
sneaking fellow. We rise somewhat higher when we call a 



LIVING WORDS. 279 

friend a gad-about, and gadding recalls to us the swift mo- 
tions of a fly, suggesting thus most forcibly the ready flit- 
ting of a woman from house to house, not omitting, even, 
the little bite that is often left behind, and may prove more 
poisonous than we thought. 

Besides nouns, few other parts of speech serve to form 
verbs. Now and then we meet with adjectives which are 
used as such, sometimes directly and without any change, 
as, to idle, to warm, and to open, at other times with the 
addition of a derivative syllable, as, to whiten, to blacken, to 
brighten, and to lighten. 

Adverbs and mere particles, finally, occur occasionally 
used without any change, as verbs. This is especially the 
case in modern authors, among whom Dickens makes the 
freest use of this class of words. To them we owe expres- 
sions such as, to over, to forward, and to even, though already 
Shakespeare had (" Macbeth " III.' 6), — 

" The cloudy messenger turns me his back 
And hums, as who should say, You'll rue the time 
That clogs me with this answer." 

The number of verbs obtained by means of a change of 
form is much larger, and the process of thus making new 
verbs has been going on actively ever since the first^xist- 
ence of English, without being abandoned even in our 
day. The most popular change is simply the addition of 
-en to the root, nor are these letters merely accidental or 
arbitrarily chosen — nothing in language is accidental, as 
little as in nature. They are, on the contrary, the result 
of the three so-called primitive verbs which, in the very 
first stage of the existence of our language, were added to 
nouns in order thus to connect their own meaning with that 
of the root. 

The simplest of the three was an, which seems to have 
had the vague, general meaning of adding, and often was 
doubled into anan. Its present participle and still sur- 
vives in modern English, and when we say " father and 



280 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

child " we still mean nothing more than " the father, add- 
ing the child." There was another form of this prim- 
itive word anciently in use, viz., ge-anan, which meant to 
add and to produce ; this has given us our modern verb to 
yean, though we limit its use to cattle and mainly to sheep, 
and hence call a young lamb also a yeanling. 

A fuller form is gan, which conveyed the general idea of 
motion, as an did that of addition. It has given us directly 
our word go, whilst the frequent double form, gangan, sur- 
vives yet in a variety of forms. It gave life to the Scotch 
term to gang, for our to go, and to a noun of our own, 
when we speak of a gang of robbers, because they go to- 
gether. Ben Jonson had, — 

v " And thence can see gang in and out my neat." 
The diminutive gangrel is used, at least provincially, for 
a vagabond, and the nautical term gangway has its name 
from being the place through which people go to and from 
a vessel. 

Agan, finally, as it has a fuller form than an and gan, 
also represents a higher idea, that of property. The latest 
use made of the old verb may probably be found in the 
famous proclamation of Henry III., made to the people of 
HunSngdonshire in 1258, where this sentence occurs : " The 
treowde thaet heo us ogen" Soon afterwards the word was 
contracted, thanks to the soft pronunciation of the letter g, 
until it assumed the present form of own. Our modern 
English mixes up in sad confusion what we own and what 
we owe to others : the idea of property (the German eigen) 
prevails in both words, but the distinction between the two 
parties has become effaced. 

In Anglo-Saxon writings we find these three primitive 
verbs appear still, from time to time, if not always in the 
infinitive, at least in other tenses, but very soon the let- 
ter g lost its power, and gan and agan were reduced, in 
composition, to ian, until, finally, all three endings were re- 
duced to a uniform an. This continued to mark verbs until 



LIVING WORDS. 281 

the time of the Norman Conquest, as it still survives in Ger- 
man, where all verbs, without exception, terminate in en. 
The new masters, not accustomed to such a termination in 
their own tongue, from the beginning seem to have fre- 
quently disregarded it. This neglect was further increased 
by the fact that they were largely in the habit of giving a 
nasal sound to the combination an. It is well known that 
even the Romans already gave this, or a similar sound, to 
the letters m and n preceded by vowels, which led to the 
suppression of accusatives in um, am, em, &c, in Latin poets, 
whenever the metre required it. The effect was, no doubt, 
a similar one in regard to our Anglo-Saxon an, of the 
origin and meaning of which the Normans could not be 
expected to be aware. When the sound of the syllable 
had thus become indistinct, the whole was not at once 
dropped, but at first only the final consonant. Hence we 
find in WicklifFe verbs appearing quite frequently without 
the n, and then the diminution of the fuller a into the 
less distinct e followed almost as a matter of necessity. 
Hence we read, Luke i. 13, " Thi wif sceal here to the a 
sone," and v. 16, "He schal converted Chaucer ends 
almost all his verbs thus, and says, — 

" She wolde wepe if that she saw a mous," 

but yet he never fails to accentuate the final e and to count 
it as a syllable. Spenser has a few verbs in en remaining, 
as e. g. : — 

" That well may semen true." — Fairy Queen, VII. 7. 

After his time, however, few cases occur, and soon even the 
final e was doomed to disappear. We need not wonder, 
therefore, that modern English has but a small number of 
verbs left in which the original termination has been pre- 
served. Such are, to learn, which was at first lear-an, as is 
easily proved by the word lore for knowledge. To mourn 
and to warn, speak for themselves, but to beckon and to 
reckon are sad evidences of misspelling, both having orig- 



282 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

inally terminated in an. At a later period it became the 
fashion to make new verbs, mostly from adjectives, by the 
addition of the former en. Thus arose our words to soften, 
to strengthen, to weaken, and to quicken, which do not show 
the old Anglo-Saxon form. This effort to introduce a new 
grammatical form was not, however, very successful, and 
we may judge of the difficulty of persuading the people to 
accept such innovations from the loss of certain verbs of 
this kind, that were really useful and desirable. Such is the 
verb to worsen, employed by Milton and by Southey, but 
now fallen into disuse. 

About the middle of the thirteenth century all verbs 
had become so uniform as no longer to be distinguished 
from the nouns, as both classes of words were almost uni- 
versally written with a final, but silent, e. It was then that 
the usage was established of prefixing the particle to to 
verbs, as the was placed before nouns. This was, of course, 
not an arbitrary choice. The particle to is the representa- 
tive of the Old Gothic verb tu-an, from which we derive 
our verb to do, as the Germans have their thun. Pre- 
fixed to a word which, like hate, love, fear, and sleep, might 
be a noun as well as a verb, it indicated at once that it was 
to be taken in an active sense, and thus enabled the reader 
or the hearer immediately to avoid any misapprehension. 
It is the same process which we pursue now when we say 
I do know, in order to intensify or to emphasize the active 
meaning of a verb. Whenever a pronoun is added to the 
verb, it suffices to show the nature of the word, and thus 
the addition of to was and is necessary only in the infinitive, 
of which it is now considered an essential sign. 

Another class of verbs, not very numerous but extremely 
interesting to the philologist, has been obtained by a pro- 
cess of derivation which belongs only to the most perfect 
languages, where the cumbersome mechanism of ruder 
idioms has been abandoned and a most delicate change, a 
mere hint, has the power to convey a change of meaning. 



LIVING WORDS. 283 

What can be more subtle, for instance, than the change of 

a final consonant merely from a sharp to a flat sound, 

with the addition of a silent e, to indicate the process of 

derivation ? And yet by this slight modification we obtain 

from — 

grass, graze, price, prize, wreath, wreathe, half, halve, 
glass, glaze, breath, breathe, cloth, clothe, calf, calve, 

and from use and house, without even that slight external 
evidence, by a mere change of sound, the verbs to house 
and to use. 

The number of verbs derived from other and older verbs 
by a change of the root itself is much larger. This process 
is one of the most striking characteristics of all German 
idioms, and threefold. The change may affect the radical 
vowel only, and thus we obtain from — 

bite, bait, fall, fell, rip, rob, sweep, swoop. 

bind, bend, grind, ground, rise, raise (rouse), tint, taint, 

breed, brood, hang, hinge, reel, roll, tap, tip (top), 

chip, chop, lie, lay (lag), sip, sop (sup), temper, tamper, 

creak, croak, lose, loose, stint, stunt, wind, wend, 

deal, dole, pain, pine, strike, stroke, wreathe, writhe ; 

drip, drop (droop), pick, peck, sit, set (seat), 

or it may affect the radical consonant only, as in — 

dip, dive, gulp? (en)gulph, twine, twist, 

drive, drift, lurk, lurch, wake, watch, 

hear (ear), heark(en) rend, rent, &c. 

or it may affect vowel and consonant both, as in — 

break, breach draw, drown, quail, quell, wear, worry, 

and broach, drink, drench, seave, sift, wring, wrench, 

dog, dodge, lance, launch, soil, sully, &c. 

drag, dredge, poke, poach, stink, stench, 

It is not quite so clearly to be ascertained, in the present 
state of our language, how verbs were originally obtained 
from other words by the addition of a letter at the begin- 
ning. Thus c was prefixed, and it gave us from — 

log, clog, ram, cram, rumple, crumple. 

lump, clump, rib (rob), crib, 



284 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Or d was changed by the addition of an aspirate into th, 
and drill became trill or thrill, and drive thrive. The letter 
s, when thus used, seems to correspond to the Latin ex in 
eaiguus, the German ur, and the Gothic us. It is not 
limited to the formation of verbs only, for it gave us, also, 
the nouns slime from lime, and stilt, spine, and strumpet 
from tilt, pin, and trumpet. Among verbs we obtain from — 

crawl, scrawl, melt, smelt, patter, spatter, way, sway, 

cold, scold, mash, smash, quash, squash, wag, swag, 

lash, slash, nip, snip, trample, sir ample, wing, swing; 

and with a slight modification of the root, from — 

dip, steep, leap, slip, tap, stab, whip, sweep, 

lag, slack, nose, sneeze, weigh, sway, wet, sweat 

heave, shove, 

The surviving influence of the Latin prefix dis has also 
occasionally left us the letter s before verbs, as in stain 
from disteindre, and in scorch from discorticare. By the 
force of analogy other verbs, also, have been made, which 
simply prefix st to ordinary words, and thus our language 
has been enriched with verbs like stroll from roll, string 
from ring, strive from rive, and strip from rip. The inser- 
tion of an s in the middle of the word has changed gap into 
gasp, and bake into bask, and at the same time slightly 
modified the original meaning. 

Verbs, finally, have their diminutive terminations as well 
as nouns, though, unfortunately, the number is only small 
and not likely to be much extended, if we may judge from 
the few unsuccessful efforts made by some late writers. 
The addition of er changes chat into chatter and blind into 
blunder, flit into flutter, and blow into bluster. To stut y 
which Butler still mentions as one of the signs of melan- 
choly, when he speaks of " stutting or tripping in speech," 
is now only used as stutter. The more fertile diminutive is 
le, which has given us, — 

bab, babble* crack, crackle, drip, dribble, gripe, grapple, 

busy, bustle, daub, dabble, gab, gabble, hurt, hurtle, 



LIVING WORDS. 285 

nip, nibble, stiff, stifle, tip, tipple, wag, waggle, 

prate, prattle, stride, straddle, top, topple, wrest, wrestle, 

rip, rt{$?e, strike, struggle, tramp, trample, wring, wrinkle. 

set, seM/e, take, tackle, wade, waddle, 

shove, shuffle, throat, throttle, 

It will thus be seen that although our English cannot com- 
pare with her more fortunate sister on the Continent in the 
number and variety of verbs, it possesses, nevertheless, a 
keen perception yet of these delicate changes, by which the 
slightest modification of a single letter becomes the expres- 
sion of a corresponding modification of meaning. Our Sax- 
on fathers had another process by which they obtained new 
verbs from Saxon roots : it consisted in the use of two pre- 
fixes, ge and <m, traces of which now survive only in a few 
cases under the form of a. The first of the two was a favor- 
ite and most distinguishing feature of the Anglo-Saxon verb, 
and its disappearance is one of the first, if not the very first, 
decided evidences of the change from Anglo-Saxon into 
English, even before the time of the Norman-French. 

It was used not only as a mark of the participle past, for 
which purpose it is still employed in German verbs, but 
also as a verbal prefix before any verb and any part of a 
verb. Even the oldest authors, however, substitute a sim- 
ple y for it, as in " Alesaundre," I. 1867 : — 

" The knyght is redy on justers 
Alle yarmed surthe well 
Bunny, and launce, and sweord of stele." 

Even the " Brut of Layamon " has idemed for gedemed, 
icome for gecome, and ispeken, as the oldest of our songs 
has — 

11 Sumer is icumen in, 
Lhude singe cuccu." 

Chaucer occasionally reminds us of the old usage when he 
employs ifalle, igo, and ifonden for the participles fallen, 
gone, and found, and in 5599 he says, — 

" Thou hast yhadde five husbondes." 

Spenser preserves some words with y, as he does many 



286 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

antique words, not because they were in use in his day, but 
because they suited the peculiar character he wished to 
give to his verses. In like manner, Fairfax's " Tasso " 
abounds with words like ibore, ibuilt, and ibr ought. Shake- 
speare uses now and then yclad and yclept, but probably 
only with a view to burlesque or grotesque effect. Thom- 
son's " Castle of Indolence " has also a few such words, 
apparently in imitation of Spenser, and in Milton, even, y 
occurs at least three times. A curious evidence of the 
readiness with which we forget the original meaning of 
once familiar words is the use of Iwiss, now nearly obso- 
lete but once quite common, for ywiss, which corresponds 
to the German gewisz. Although this particle ge seems 
thus no longer to be used in our English, it is still pre- 
served in part under various forms. Thus we meet, even 
now, occasionally with the antiquated terms of yclad and 
yclept, and often with happy effect. The latter term is now 
only used with reference to names, though originally it cor- 
responded to all the meanings of the verb " to call," as in 
Matthew xx. 1 6, where the ancient version has " Manega 
synt geclypoda" for " Many be called." The modern enough 
retains in its first letter the marks of the Anglo-Saxon 
genog (German genug), which in Old English already was 
softened into ynowh. Few suspect the hidden manner in 
which this ancient ge still lurks in some compound words 
of our day, and yet we can easily trace the old " hand ge 
weorc" made by hand, in our handiwork, and we shall 
then understand the peculiar formation of other similar 
words, like handicraft, hand^grip, handicap, and nightm- 
gale. We shall find, moreover, upon a somewhat more 
careful investigation of the matter, that it has not simply 
dropped out of the language, like a decayed member, but 
by a simple and very natural transition changed into be, 
under which form it is now frequently disguised. This is 
not a mere supposition, but can easily be proved by the 
fact that of the large number of modern verbs which begin 



LIVING WORDS. 287 

with be, only about thirty or forty are found in Anglo-Saxon 
writers, while all the others may be traced to recent 
days, when they were made in imitation of others already 
existing. " The Paston' Letters," for instance, still have 
headed simply for beheaded, (vol. ii. letter 32,) and Chaucer 
says, " That appertaineth and longeth all onely to the 
judges" ("Tale of Meliboeus "). It seems that anciently 
the particle be, by itself, had the power of giving an active 
meaning to verbs, and hence we obtained bedim, beget, 
begird, benumb, bereave, beseech, begin, bespeak, from Saxon 
words, and from French sources, beguile, besot, and besiege. 
Bedew and bestrew, unbefriended and unbefitting, are compar- 
atively modern words ; others have gone out of fashion, as 
Shakespeare's befortune, benetted, and beweep, whilst unbe- 
known is now considered a vulgarism, although Chaucer 
says to beJcnow. Our modern beloved is evidently noth- 
ing else but the Anglo-Saxon participle gelufod, and in like 
manner belong was once gelong, and believed once gelyfed, 
for Gower uses frequently leve alone, and Chaucer, even, 
has the simple form quite often. There are even false 
forms of this kind existing, such as the contraction of 
be and gone into one word, begone. Beware, also, was origi- 
nally not written in one word : the Bible said, " Of whom 
be thou ware also," (2 Tim. iv. 5,) and Pope says cor- 
rectly, " Be ware of man," which Tennyson imitates in 

the line, — 

" They were ware that all the decks were dense." 

The prefix ge has lastly changed sometimes into a simple 
a, although it ought to be remembered that this same a is 
by some claimed as a remnant of the grammar of the 
Britons, and thus as a Celtic element of our English. We 
can, however, distinctly trace the change from gebidan 
to abide, and the like origin of arise, awake, arouse, and 
abet Most of the forms now in use are participles, as 
the correctly formed, but now condemned, a/eared, adrift, 
ashamed, athirst, etc. Occasionally the same letter repre- 



288 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

sents the ancient prefix on. " The Knight's Tale " (1689) 
has "On huntyng ben they ridden," and the Bible of 
King James (Acts xiii. 36) has "fell on sleep," but already 
Bentley's " Dissertation on Phalaria" says, " Yet the same 
man here, in his great wisdom, would have a learned Uni- 
versity make barbarisms a purpose," as abed and aloft 
mean " on the bed " and " on the loft." In a few cases the 
same prefix a can be traced back to its French origin. 
Thus alarm comes from a Varme, abase from a bas, and 
abandon from the old a, ban donner. 

The number of English verbs obtained by genuine com- 
position is, unfortunately, quite small, Latin substitutes 
having generally driven out the good old Saxon words. 
Our German sister is happier in this respect, and preserves 
to this day a host of simple, suggestive words of this class, 
which we once shared with her and now but imperfectly 
replace by foreign terms. Among the few classes of com- 
pounds which remain, those with for are peculiar, because 
they contain two different words, now often confounded. 
Some have their origin in the Saxon verb faran, to go, to 
travel, etc., whence our farewell, the wish and prayer for 
the welfare of our friends. Fare itself survives in the word 
for the price we give for traveling by land or sea, and 
names like JLelfare, a place near Chertsey, in the Thames, 
to which the young eels come up in spring. Ferry, as a 
passage by water, and ford, or fared, a passage on foot 
through the water, come from the same root. In compound 
verbs it assumes the form of for and suggests, like its Ger- 
man representative ver, always the idea of parting or de- 
struction : hence our forbid, forsake, forget, and forswear ; 
forgive, forlet, and forlorn. The relation between the Eng- 
lish and the German term is very clearly shown in " Robert 
of Gloucester/' who always says vergaf ver g on, vergyte, and 
verlore, although " Piers Ploughman " already has " fier 
shale /orbrenne," (44). 

The other class of these compounds derive their origin 



LIVING WORDS. 289 

from the word before, and hence forego means to precede, 
forethink to premeditate, and foretell and forestall have 
similar meanings. As the tendency to greater uniformity 
has already led to much confusion between these two words, 
and, e. g., forgo and forego are hardly any longer distin- 
guished, it is all the more important to remember, at least, 
historically the different origin of such words. 

The large variety of verbs, and the almost unlimited free- 
dom with which we can obtain them from other parts of 
speech, is out of all proportion to the use made of verbs. 
It seems as if all that our language nowadays desired was 
to have the verbal idea abundantly represented. It is no 
longer, as in ancient languages and in Anglo-Saxon, adapted 
by numerous inflections and changes to the various purposes 
for which it serves ; a conjugation of the verb can hardly 
be said to exist ; we have laid aside not only the passive 
and middle voice, the optative and other moods of Greek 
verbs, but we have abandoned also the many tenses of the 
Latin verb, which the Romance languages still retain, and 
after thus stripping the verb of all power to express time 
and mood, the tendency of our day is to free it more and 
more even of its connection with person. 

The Anglo-Saxon verb had its usual complement of per- 
sonal inflections, which, if they added little to the clearness 
and force of the language, certainly contributed much to the 
beauty and variety of its forms. Of these but few are left 
in our day. As far as a careful study of the language 
enables us to judge, the last remnant of the Saxon con- 
jugation was the plural in en, which is still used in Lanca- 
shire, the North of England, York, and Derbyshire. Until 
the time of Henry VIIL, it seems to have maintained itself 
in general use, although Chaucer already terminates his 
verbs both in e and in en. The fuller termination does not 
altogether disappear until the time of Spenser, for even 
Fuller uses it, though rarely; but when it at last was 
abandoned, there disappeared with it the last characteristic 
19 



290 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

of a grammar different from modern English. The gradual 
change is very perceptible in the Bible versions ; Wickliffe 
still said : " And fluddes camen and wyndis blewen" while 
Tyndale has : " And fluddes came, and wyndes blewe and 
beet upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of 
it." The loss was not merely one of form, but also of sound, 
as Ben Jonson well remarks in his Grammar : " In former 
times, till about the reign of Henry VIII., they (the per- 
sons of the plural) were wont to be formed by adding en. 
But now (whatsoever is the cause), it hath quite growne 
out of use, and that other e so generally prevails, that I 

dare not presume to set this afoot again e Albeit, to 

tell you my opinion, I am persuaded that the lack thereof, 
well considered, will be found a great blemish to our 
tongue." Poets, also, have reason to regret its loss, for it 
was an important aid to rhythm, as we may judge from 
many happy lines of Chaucer, like the following : — 

" And small fowles mahen melodie 
That step en al the night with open yhe." 

The only personal inflections left us in our day are those 
of the second and third person singular. The termination 
est, limited of course to the rare use of the corresponding 
pronoun, is still of great force, and makes us regret the loss 
of a more general use. More rarely still do we meet with 
the eth of the third person, now almost exclusively employed 
in poetry, or when we speak with great emphasis on solemn 
subjects, and for sacred purposes. The loss of this syllable 
must have been very gradual and almost imperceptible, for 
in Sir Thomas More's works, as published in 1527 by order 
of Queen Mary, we find that looketh, smileth, &c, are still 
written, but evidently pronounced as one syllable, as we 
judge from the metre of his poems, in which he shows a very 
accurate and fastidious ear. On the other hand, it appears 
that the same e was as often elided in writing when it had 
evidently to be pronounced, for words printed thus : whirlth, 
pluckth, and startlth are clearly unpronounceable. The mod- 



LIVING WORDS. 291 

ern fashion of substituting s for the full syllable eth has not 
only led to greater uniformity, but also produced an increase 
of that letter which is already too frequent in English, and 
thus added to the hissing, which strikes the ear of foreign- 
ers with such unpleasant force. 

The modifications of the verb which serve to designate 
the time of its action, have, in like manner, disappeared in 
English, until hardly more than two distinct forms have sur- 
vived. The distinction of so-called tenses is, of course, a 
purely arbitrary arrangement, and nearly every nation has 
its own system. In one language the present is considered 
so fleeting that it is either still future or already past ; in 
another, the past is subdivided into minute periods, and 
thus where one idiom is content with two or three tenses, 
another has a dozen. In fact, there is no reason why there 
might not be as many tenses as we choose to make sub- 
divisions of time. Our English, however, goes here also 
farther than all other modern languages, disdaining to in- 
cumber the verb with numerous forms, and leaving it to the 
connection to suggest the precise time of its action. It has, 
properly speaking, but two tenses, the definite and the in- 
definite — all others suggestive of past or of future it ex- 
presses by what we call auxiliary verbs. 

The indefinite tense, which our grammars persist in call- 
ing the present, is of course represented by the simple form 
of the verb itself, without any further change, and to love 
and I love, to go and I go, remain the same. The definite 
tense, however, which expresses the only time that can be 
spoken of with precision, the past, seems in Anglo-Saxon 
always to have been formed by genuine inflection. But 
although we are justified in presuming that in the first stage 
of our language all verbs were strong, we find that at the 
time of the earliest manuscripts the idiom was already so 
far modified as to have many weak verbs by their side. 
Since then, the number of the latter has steadily increased 
by the force of analogy, and the tendency to uniformity, 



292 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

and whilst in Old English strong verbs had still a large 
majority, they are now in so sad a minority as to be stigma- 
tized by the name of irregular verbs. 

The manner of inflection for the purpose of forming the 
past tense was, however, so varied as to produce now several 
classes of strong verbs. Purely strong verbs, which are 
almost all intransitive and radical, make it, in the first 
place, by merely changing the radical vowel, as in — 

run, ran ; sing, sang ; spin, span ; come, came ; sink, sank. 

The number of these is still quite considerable ; many, how- 
ever, have been entirely lost, and still others survive only 
in certain localities. Thus sew, from to sow, is used by 
Gower in " De Confessione Amantis," V. fol. 936; snew, 
from to snow, by Holinshead, who, speaking of the tragedy 
of Dido, performed before Prince Alasco, says (1583) : "It 
snew an artificial kind of snow ; " crew, from to crow, occurs 
in the Bible, when " the cock crew " to the grief of St 
Peter, and mought from I might, now accounted a vulgar- 
ism, was correct in the days of Chaucer, and is so used by 
Fairfax. All these words, together with others like I rep, 
from to reap, and I mew, from to mow, are still in constant 
use in the North of England, and in Essex ; and I hove, I 
puck, I shuck, I squoze, and I clomb, are frequently heard in 
Hereford and other inland counties. The last-mentioned 
preterit seems to have been yet in use in Milton's days, for 
he says : — 

" So clomb the first great thief into God's fold, 
So since, into his church lewd hirelings climb." 

Paradise Lost. 

How much fashion and the fanciful taste of poets must have 
had to do with these changes, may be judged from the fact 
that even the oldest authors used weak forms of strong 
verbs, which are not yet universally adopted in our day. 
In the " Morte d' Arthur " we find, — 

" He ground in might and strength." 



LIVING WORDS. 293 

And in the " Franklin's Tale," — 

'* Of fyshe and fleshe, and that so plenteouse, 
It snewed in bis house of mete and drinke, 
Of all daintees that men could of thinke." 

Other forms of the kind are even now in the process of 
changing ; thus we seldom say swoll, but more frequently 
swelled, and not hung, but hanged, though the first named 
are certainly not incorrect. 

A second class of strong verbs change with the radical 
vowel the final radical consonant also, as in — 

bring, brought, catch, caught, buy, bought, 

teach, taught, seek, sought, think, thought. 

The reason of this additional change, so far from being 
irregular, is easily seen ; in all these verbs the final conso- 
nant c, g, or k, &c., comes in immediate contact with the 
harsh letter t, and then, as in all such cases throughout the 
language, always changes into h. Here, also, the gradual 
nature of the change from strong to weak verbs may be 
easily traced. Catched is not quite out of use yet, though 
generally superseded by caught, whilst Shakespeare's — 

" He raught me his hand," {Henry T 7 ., IV. 6,) 

would be hardly understood now, and his distraught, (" Rich- 
ard III.," III. 5, and alias), has been justly abandoned, be- 
cause here a foreign word, the Latin distraho, was actually 
subjected to purely Saxon rules. 

We have already above referred to the fact that the 
majority of strong verbs have become weak by the force of 
analogy ; there are, however, other reasons which have pro- 
duced the same effect. Some, it seems, have changed their 
form slightly in order to indicate a corresponding change 
from the neuter to the active meaning, and in this transfor- 
mation lost the power of making the past by inflection ; 
such are the verbs drench, from drink, fell, from fall, set, 
from sit, and others. A combination of strong verbs with 
other words seems to have produced a similar effect, for 



294 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

while to do and to break are strong, to undo and to breakfast 
are weak. 

Weak verbs have, from of old, formed their past tense 
by the addition of d, which was originally nothing else than 
the past tense of the verb to do, — did. This has been clearly 
proved by a comparison of Anglo-Saxon with its near rela- 
tive, the Gothic, where the full auxiliary dedum, &c, has 
been preserved. Hence I loved is the same as Hove did, 
or as we still constantly say, / did love. If we ask the 
question which would naturally suggest itself to our mind, 
how did itself was formed, we find here also the explanation 
in kindred languages, and their rule to form strong verbs 
by reduplication. Now the final syllable in Anglo-Saxon 
dide, our did, is not a termination, but the verb itself, and 
the first syllable, di, is a re-duplication of the root, all pre- 
terits of old verbs being thus made in Anglo-Saxon, as 
well as in Greek and in Sanscrit. 

This once being done, the preterite did was then added 
to other verbal roots in order to express that the action of 
the verb itself is done or finished, as we are still in the habit 
of saying, " I do say so," and as the illiterate of England 
and the blacks of America say, " I done do that." The 
additional e between the final d and the root of the verb 
is merely euphonic, used to preserve the sound of certain 
delicate consonants ; hence the difference between loved, 
longed, and loaded, and heard, said, and paid. Since the 
days of Swift, who first complained of this change to Addi- 
son and thus brought the matter to public notice in the 
" Spectator/' the " natural aversion to loquacity " of the Eng- 
lish, as he calls it, has made this great change of suppress- 
ing the sound of the e. The " Spectator " mentions with 
regret, that the words drowned, walked, and arrived, are 
beginning to be pronounced drown'd, waWd, and arrived, 
and that thus a tenth part of our words appear now as so 
many clusters of consonants. The spelling here also, soon 
followed the pronunciation of these words, and thus arose 



LIVING WORDS. 295 

the general tendency to contract all similar forms. This 
led, in the end, to a change of the final d, when placed after 
two consonants, into t, and hence our learnt, rent, and bent, 
for learned, rented, and bended ; or the d has entirely dis- 
appeared after another d or after t, as in let, cut, set, and 
shred, rid, and read, changes which are, in truth, nothing 
more than an orthographical convenience. 

The so-called irregular verbs, finally, belong properly to 
the same category to which irregular comparatives were 
assigned ; they are not really irregular, but prove, when 
properly examined, to be parts of different verbs, united 
only by that " usus quern penes arbitrium est et jus et norma 
loquendi" Thus, I went, has nothing at all to do with the 
verb to go, but belongs to the verb to wend, which was for- 
merly in full use. Chaucer says not only in his " Text of 
Love " he wendeih, but even " It befell that he is went? In 
the " Midsummer Night's Dream " we find " they shall 
wend" Milton has " thou wentest," (Paradise Lost, XII. 
610,) and Lord Byron says, " Childe Harold wends through 
many a pleasant place." Now its use is almost entirely 
limited to the expression " to wend one's way," and gram- 
marians call it irregular. 

By the side of these few variations of form, by which in 
one case the past time is distinguished from the present, 
and in another case the second and third person are marked, 
the verb possesses in our day but two additional forms : the 
so-called participles, which Vossius quaintly calls mules, 
because ft they partake alike of the noun and the verb, as 
the mule of the horse and the ass." 

The present participle ended in Anglo-Saxon in end, 
maintaining thus the analogy with the Greek e^res, and 
the Latin habeas. This ancient termination is by no 
means quite extinct yet in England ; it is constantly heard 
in Lincolnshire, Northumberland, and Scotland, and, in 
fact, wherever traces may be found of Scandinavian set- 
tlements. There words like goand and strihand are fre- 



296 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

quently in use, reminding us of the end, which forms the 
regular German participle, (gehend, streichend,) and which 
is occasionally strengthened, as in the Scotch farant, its com- 
pound auldfarant, and the Shropshire word farantly. But 
it survives even in classic English ; the Saxon word frean, 
in German freien, meant to love, to hold dear, and has left 
us its participle in friend, anciently freond. So also the op- 
posite sentiment expressed in the Saxon verb fan, to hate, 
has given us besides the other two derivatives, foe and feud, 
its participle fend, as we read already in " Gower," V. : — 

" For he no more than he fende, 
Unto none other man is Jiende, 
But all toward hymselfe alone." 

This termination end has been gradually transformed into 
our modern ing, and the change is probably due to two 
peculiar influences, which throw much light upon the grad- 
ual and often apparently arbitrary manner in which modern 
languages have acquired their present form. The Norman 
conquerors on one hand, were no doubt disposed to give to 
this syllable end the same sound which these letters had in 
their own tongue, and to pronounce it as they did their 
grand, sang, en, and other words. This led to a more and 
more nasal pronunciation, which easily passed into the cor- 
responding ing, and from the spoken to the written word. 
On the other hand, our ancestors themselves contributed 
probably their share to the transformation. Every careful 
observer must have been struck with the frequent pronun- 
ciation of ing as en or in by the uneducated, a change which 
is almost the rule among the blacks in the Southern States. 
There, as among the common people everywhere, seein is 
believin. This tendency is further strengthened by the fact 
that many of these condemned vulgarisms are originally 
correct. If we hear a man say, " It was owen to my 
master," we ought to hesitate before blaming him for his 
bad English ; owen is just as correct as owing, for when we 
say " it is my own," we mean nothing more by it than " it is 



LIVING WORDS. 297 

owen to me." Now, this confusion between ing and en or 
end, being once established and aided by the influence of 
Norman masters, the transition from the ancient end to the 
modern ing was easily though slowly accomplished, and we 
can trace the gradual encroachment of the new form dis- 
tinctly from century to century. Nor ought we to overlook 
the lesser but not ineffective influence of the fact that the 
Anglo-Saxon already knew verbal substantives in pig, cor- 
responding to those formed by the Germans in ung, so that 
very early indeed both terminations, end and yng, must have 
been found side by side, formed from the same verb. Thus 
our word dwelling was in Anglo-Saxon derived from wunian, 
to dwell, and made in wuning, (German, Wohnung), so that 
in " Prologue," I. 608, we read, — 

44 His wonyng was ful fayr upon an heth." 

The first regular participle of the kind occurs probably in 
" Layamon's Brut," though only once, in the word waldinge. 
Wickliffe uses still persistently the ancient form, and says, 
in Mark i. 7, " he prechyde sayande, a stalworther thane I 
schale come efter me, of whom I am not worthe down fal- 
lande or knelande to louse the thwonge of his chaucers (chaus- 
sure)." Chaucer, however, uses -and but rarely ; in return 
he puzzles his readers sorely by always accenting the more 
fashionable ing, as in — 

44 Seeking for right, which I of thee entreat," 
"Damning all wrong and tortuous injury,' ■ 

and — 

44 Biding together both with equal pace," 

a peculiarity in which he is faithfully followed by his con- 
temporaries and successors, even to Spenser's " Fairy 
Queen." 

That the change must have obtained very early may be 
concluded from the fact that already in 1258, a genuine 
French word, barely naturalized, is found with the new 
termination, for in the translation of an edict of Henry 
III. from the Anglo-Norman for his Saxon subjects, the 



298 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

word crouninge appears. As late as the sixteenth century, 
however, both the old and the new form still occur side by 
side ; and it is not until the greater regularity of classic 
authors of that age settled our spelling permanently, that 
the modern form prevailed alone. The few terminations 
in end which survive, have generally nothing to do with 
Saxon, but are more or less direct importations from the 
Latin. Thus legend comes from legendum, although Home 
Tooke sneeringly says, that it means more frequently 
quod non legendum. Reverend entered through the church, 
and was at first given to all judges, as they were long by 
necessity clerks, though now to ministers only; dividend 
designated originally what ought to be divided, but now 
what actually is divided. Prebend, agenda, and similar 
words, are to this day purely Latin terms. 

The past participle can hardly be viewed as more than 
an adjective form of the past tense of the verb. We need 
no other proof of this than the regular manner of its deri- 
vation from the latter. In genuine strong verbs its form 
corresponds simply to that of the past tense. We say I 
bought, and a bought horse ; I thought, and a good thought. 
It is true that not unfrequently English verbs present so- 
called double forms, of which one serves for the past tense, 
and the other for the participle. This does not, however, 
indicate a different origin of the participle. The explana- 
tion is found in the fact that anciently these strong verbs 
changed the radical vowel from the singular of the past 
tense to the plural, using generally a in the former and u 
in the latter. This difference of the two numbers was in 
accordance with a general law to which all Germanic lan- 
guages are found subject. Already in Old English, how- 
ever, the custom of distinguishing singular and plural by 
any change of form ceased to be observed, and both became 
uniform, though not yet as much so as they now are. For 
owing to the want of any absolute authority in matters of 
letters, and the utterly loose orthography of those days, the 



LIVING WORDS. 299 

two forms in a and u, were, for a time, allowed to drift about 
loosely in the language. When, subsequently, a demand 
arose for law and order, not in society only, but even in 
language, the grammarians had nothing better to recom- 
mend than that one of those double forms was to be got rid 
of. But, in the mean time, the loose fragments had crystal- 
ized afresh into a fixed shape, simply in obedience to the 
common consent and usage of educated Englishmen, and 
now appear in relations which have nothing to do with their 
first position. Grammarians are still prone to call them 
irregular, thus relieving themselves of all responsibility for 
the change and its causes. Now, the forms in a are con- 
fined to the active past tense, and those in u all changed 
into participles. Hence we say, I drank and I was drunk ; 
we speak of money sunk, not sank ; of linen spun, not span. 
It is no longer considered good English to say I sung a 
song, but I sang ; yet nobody would say that a M song had 
been sang." This is one of the points concerning the his- 
tory of a language on which grammarians have absolutely 
nothing to say, as they are purely historical. For there never 
has been a rule or a law to settle this ; yet the fact is tacitly 
admitted by all writers, and universally acquiesced in by 
educated persons. It shows, evidently, that there is a 
spiritual life in every living language, which makes itself 
finally manifest, and works through the minds of all speak- 
ers and writers as its own artist. As a necessary conse- 
quence of this explanation, we find that the process is still 
steadily going on, the distribution of the two forms being 
by no means finally settled. Thus we find even now good 
writers say with equal correctness, " the vessel sank" and 
" she sunk ; " and swam and swum were until lately used in- 
discriminately. 

A further change has occasionally taken place in these 
strong past participles, when, as is very frequently the case, 
they have established themselves as regular adjectives. 
Thus strong is itself derived from to string, through the par- 
ticiple, as we see from Dryden's lines, — 



300 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

" By choice our longlived fathers earned their food, 
Toil strung their nerves and purified their blood." 

And in the " Lady of the Lake " we find a similar adjec- 
tive, — 

" Of stature tall and slender frame, 
But firmly Jcnit was Malcolme Graeme." 

The past participles of weak verbs are, in like manner, 
made from their past tenses by the addition of d, which has 
been explained above ; where the final d comes in contact 
with another hard consonant, there is at once a tendency 
perceptible gradually to contract the full form ed into t. 
This is not only the case with nouns derived from partici- 
ples, as in gift, from what is gived, feint from feigned, and 
joint from joined, but even in simple verbal forms, as in 
dealt, dreamt, burnt, meant, bent, and girt. But here, also, 
the language is still in a state of transition, and lingers in 
it all the more readily because it obtains thus a greater 
variety of forms, which add to its beauty and harmony. 
Shakespeare uses cast, but, also, in " Henry V.," — 

" and newly mown 

With casted slough and fresh celerity," 

and our Bible version says in verse 13 of 1 Kings viii : " I 
have surely built thee a house to dwell in," and in verse 27 
of the same chapter, " how much less this house that I have 
builded? There are quite a number of verbs which even 
now hesitate between the fuller and the contracted form, as 
lighted and lit, learned and learnt, decked and deckt, tossed and 
tosst. In other verbs one of the hard consonants has been 
simply dropped, and thus we obtain the so-called irregular 
forms of participles, which agree with the infinitive, as cast, 
hurt, cost, and put. 

A point much overlooked, and yet of great interest, is the 
strange power which our English possesses of making, by 
the mere force of analogy, past participles in ed from nouns, 
even where no verb of the kind is or ever was in existence 
— a power which may be traced back to the original force 



LIVING WORDS. 301 

of this d, as derived from the verb to do. Thus we have 
moneyed and landed men ; " a lily-livered knave " (" King 
Lear," II. 2), and hunchbacked, cock-brained, cross-grained, 
and henpecked husbands. 

A smaller class of past participles is found in English, 
derived from verbs by the addition of that fertile source of 
adjectives, the termination en. Not unfrequently this form 
is found by the side of that in ed, as is the case in the two 
remarkable words, head and heaven, which are both derived 
from the Anglo-Saxon word heah (high), through the de- 
rivative verb heave, to put on high. The mode of derivation 
appears in remarkable clearness in a copy of the Bible of 
the time of Edward III., where we read : "And I saw an 
other strong aungel comynge down from Heuene, keuerid or 
clothid with a cloude, and the reynbow in his Heuede? 
(Apocal. x. 1). " Piers Ploughman " also has, " The Hevedes 
of holy churche and they holy were, Christe calleth hem 
salt." 

Some of these participles have been but recently lost, 
for Milton still speaks of " a foughten field ; " and older 
poets owed to them much beauty and variety, as in Spen- 
ser's lines, — 

" The barren ground was full of wicked weeds, 
Which she herself had somen all about 
Now growen great of little seeds." 

Where the full forms are preserved, they add much to the 

richness of modern verse, and Wordsworth makes the most 

of them, as in his " Wanderer : " — 

" his countenance meanwhile 

Was hidden from my view, and she remained 
Unrecognized, but stricken by the sight 
With slackened footsteps I advanced." 

Frequently the full forms have been contracted after vowels, 
as in drawn, known, born, and thrown ; in other cases the 
syllable is gradually disappearing. Thus we still have 
stolen, but hidden is slowly giving way to hid, like bounden, 
now used only with special meaning. # 



302 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

The strikingly small number of forms to which the Eng- 
lish verb has thus been gradually reduced, would naturally 
render it very helpless, and lead to much obscurity and am- 
biguity, if the language, with its unfailing instinct, had not 
from the beginning seized upon a remedy. By its adroit 
use of the latter, it has not only supplied the apparent want, 
but actually added new strength to its verbs. The ancient 
languages, it is well known, expressed all the more common 
modes of action, existence, &c, by a number of varied in- 
flections, and thus boasted of numerous tenses and moods. 
The Anglo-Saxon and English verb, on the contrary, con- 
tents itself strictly with its primary, legitimate duty, and 
with genuine simplicity claims to refer only to state or 
action. Hence its few forms. All other modifications of 
its meaning are expressed by the aid of other verbs, which 
thus become, in the true sense of the word, auxiliary verbs. 
By this, as already Camden said, our English has obtained 
a power, which the ancients, with all their variety of mood 
and inflection of tenses, could not attain. This is so char- 
acteristic of the peculiar mode of thought of the people, 
that these auxiliary verbs, like the personal pronouns, have 
ever remained purely Saxon, and neither suffered modifica- 
tion by the Conqueror, nor admitted a single Norman-French 
form to their number. The only trace to be found at all of 
French influence, is perhaps the use of the verb to come, 
with the present participle ; u he comes running," " he came 
staggering," being probably an imitation of the French il 
vint s'ecriani. There is less ground for supposing that the 
combination of the verb to have with the verb to be, in its 
compound tenses, was likewise due to French influence, 
though it is urged that the French alone uses the two verbs 
in such manner, the other Romance languages having dif- 
ferent forms, and that the union of to have and to be is not 
met with in writers before the Norman Conquest. 

The most frequent of these auxiliaries is also the one 
which has the most general meaning — the verb to do. We 



LIVING WORDS. 303 

employ it continually for the sake of emphasis in the pres- 
ent, and place it once more before the past, because the 
original meaning of the final d has been lost. Hence we 
say " I do love," and " he did say so." Good English writers 
insist upon its use in questions, so that " did he come ? " 
takes the place of " came he ? " and in negative sentences, 
where we cannot well say " he came not," but substitute for 
it " he did not come." 

The auxiliary verb to he is in English, as in all languages, 
one of the most interesting and yet one of the most diffi- 
cult to explain. In no living language has it preserved its 
full, original form, but seems everywhere to have seized 
upon such parts of other verbs as could strengthen its 
meaning and add to its power. Already in the oldest 
Anglo-Saxon, in the form in which we first find it written, 
this verb shows by its great variety of forms, that it was 
even then no longer in a state of original purity and sim- 
plicity, or it would have been complete and regular through- 
out, as ct/u was in Greek. It contained, instead, elements 
of at least five distinct substantive verbs, the primitive 
terms of which appear also in the other languages of the 
same family, as is the case with the Latin verb esse. This 
striking identity of our auxiliary with certain forms of 
ancient idioms, presents us another forcible proof of the 
intimate relationship existing between our English and the 
great family of idioms with which it claims kindred. On 
the other hand, it must not be overlooked that much of this 
apparent identity remains yet unexplained, and whilst the 
result cannot be denied, the connection has by no means 
been satisfactorily established in all cases. 

The Anglo-Saxon Ic eom, our I am, bears upon its face 
evident proof of its identity with the Greek elfii, and the 
Latin sum. The second person thu eart, thou art, together 
with the plural form are, have, in like manner, been traced 
back to the Latin eram ; neither art nor are, however, can 
be called genuine Saxon, and with wert must be ascribed to 



304 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Scandinavian, probably Icelandic influence. The Anglo- 
Saxon forms sy, seo, and sind, preserved in the German sein 
and its derivatives, but entirely lost in modern English, cor- 
responded, thirdly, with the Latin sum and sunt. I was and 
we were, belong, fourthly, to an ancient verb, wesan, Gothic 
visan, meaning originally to grow, which we have also un- 
fortunately lost, whilst our German neighbors have pre- 
served it not only as a verb, but in the form of some of 
their most suggestive nouns. Not less ought we to regret 
the loss of the many forms in which the verb beon, our to 
be, entered formerly into the conjugation of this auxiliary. 
Now we retain only the infinitive, and an occasional beest, 
as in " Paradise Lost," I. 84, — 

" If thou beest he — but how fallen, how changed ! M 

Chaucer's frequent use of ben instead of are, as in the 

line — 

" That ye ben of my liffe and dethe the quene," 

has been rather violently imitated in Byron's " Don Juan," 
XIII. 26,— 

" Also there bin another pious reason." 

We see, lastly, in the third person is a beautiful illustration 
of the gradual curtailment of certain forms, which by con- 
stant use lose more and more of their substance, even as 
small coins, in unceasing circulation, soon have their effigy 
and legend effaced. Its best-known ancestor is the San- 
scrit asti, which reappears in the Zend esti, and the 
Greek hnrL The last vowel disappears alike in the Gothic 
ist and the Latin est, and their descendants on both 
sides reduce it finally to the present shortened form, 

thus : — 

Gothic, ist, Anglo-Saxon, ys, Latin, est, Spanish, es, 

German, ist, English, is, French, est, Italian, e. 

The use of this verb as an auxiliary is as simple as it is 
familiar, but there are two ways in which it occurs which 
are more peculiar to English, and therefore deserve special 
mention. One is the idiomatic manner in which, by its aid, 



LIVING WORDS. 305 

English verbs express duration, or, as it is sometimes tech- 
nically called, " a continued present." This is the purpose 
of expressions like / am reading and / was saying, known 
already to the Anglo-Saxon, and constituting one of those 
forms which give such remarkable precision for the expres- 
sion of time to the English verb. " I am going to read," 
or " I was going to speak," present another of these pecu- 
liar forms by which we convey the idea of an immediate 
future, somewhat after the fashion of the French je vais 
lire. 

The auxiliary to have is, on the contrary, a complete verb, 
and its apparent irregularities are nothing more than the 
result of gradual contraction, such as has taken place 
throughout all parts of speech under like circumstances. 
Thus Chaucer frequently uses the then prevailing form of 
the infinitive to haven, but occasionally prefers the shortened 
form to han. Other contractions were gradually introduced 
as we can trace them from one author to another, e. g., — 

Thou haefest, haefst, haest, hast. 
He haefeth, haefth, hath, has. 
He haefde, haefd, hadde, had. 

Several of these auxiliary verbs have for so long served 
only to express certain fixed tenses or moods, that they are 
no longer full verbs, and now are used exclusively for one 
or the other meaning. They can, however, all be traced 
back to their once complete form. Such is our / may, 
derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb magan (German 
mogen), expressing the liberty of doing a thing. An- 
ciently it was either I may or I mow, and had its regular 
past tense, I monght, which, although now considered vul- 
gar and incorrect, was legitimately used by Chaucer, by 
Fairfax, and down to the end of the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth. Its ill-regulated orthography led, probably, most 
directly to its abandonment, especially as one way of spell- 
ing it produced no small confusion by the resemblance to 



306 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

another auxiliary. This was the form mote, as we find it in 

Spenser's " Fairy Queen," II. 9, 18 : — 

" She was faire as faire mote ever be," 

and in Fairfax's "Tasso," III. 13,— 

" Within the postern stood Argantes stout 
To rescue her, if ill mote her betide.' ' 

For there was another Anglo-Saxon verb, motan, which 
expressed the idea of necessity, now conveyed by our word 
ought. Its past tense, it is said, which would have been 
mot-ed or mot-t, could, of course, not be pronounced, and 
was softened into most, the ancestor of our must, which now 
serves for past and present alike. Its ancient use may be 
gathered from Gower's — 

" For as the fisse, if it be dry, 
Mote, in defaute of water, die," 

and from Chaucer's line, — 

" Men mosten given silver to pore freres." 

Byron has left us in doubt as to the precise meaning which 
he gives to the word in, — 

" Whatever this grief mote be, which he could not control." 

The apparently anomalous auxiliary I ought is a second- 
ary derivation from the Saxon word agan (German eigeri), 
our modern to own. This divided, in the past tense, into 
I owed and I ought, with the meaning of owing something 
to duty or obligation. An old political song has, — 
" All England ahte for to knowe," 

which shows us the manner of derivation, g always chang- 
ing into h before t. 

I will has not yet become quite obsolete as an indepen- 
dent verb. Shakespeare says, — 

" He mils you in the name of God Almighty," 

and — 

" She willed me to leave my base vocation." 

Its past tense, once 2" wilede, became early / wolede (Ger- 
man wollte), and this led to the modern contraction 1 



LIVING WORDS. 307 

would, with silent I. Its meaning, so strikingly character- 
istic of the language, is the combination of futurity and 
volition. Hence already in Wickliffe's translation we read, 
" I wolde ye schulden sustaine a litil thing of my unwis- 
dome." 

/ shall, on the contrary, from the Anglo-Saxon scealan, 
(German sollen,) has a different origin and meaning. It 
is the oldest English form of the future, and originally 
meant to owe, for so even Chaucer uses it, saying, — 

" For by the faithe I shall to God." 
In Scripture shall is also a common form of the future, 
where ordinary language, in speaking of earthly things, 
would prefer will. When applied to God, it conveys, of 
course, the acknowledgment that with Him the idea of 
constraint is naturally excluded ; hence, " Thou shalt en- 
dure, and thy years shall not change," or " The righteous 
shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall 
wax stronger and . stronger." They have been well called 
regular futures, uninfluenced in form by human fears, or 
courtesies, or doubts. Elsewhere, however, shall suggests 
rather futurity, as dependent on duty or necessity, and 
hence already in Wickliffe, " Sothely the unwisdome of 
them schal be knowen to alle men." This double future 
of the English, by means of two different verbs, is one of 
the greatest beauties of the language. Used with equal 
variety and precision, its thoroughly idiomatic employment 
has been gradually worked up to such nicety of distinction 
and power of expression, that it can now be acquired only 
by instinct, and is a sore puzzle, if not an insuperable diffi- 
culty, to all foreigners. It must be admitted, that there is 
no absolute rule given by any grammarian that will apply 
to all cases, without leaving room for doubt. Archdeacon 
Hare explains the law of the future, after Jacob Grimm, 
upon ethical grounds, saying that " when speaking in the 
first person we speak submissively, when speaking of 
another we speak courteously." This is true as far as it 



308 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

goes, but it does not cover all the ground. For / shall 
can, by accent or merely by the connection, be as presump- 
tuous as / will, and you shall have it is fully as cour- 
teous as you will. As the variety of meaning to be 
expressed by the two verbs is almost infinite, there is no 
sure guide but that instinct which is given to all who learn 
a language with their mother's milk, or who acquire it so 
successfully as to master its spirit as well as its form. 

The auxiliary lean, simple in its meaning, presents to 
the careful inquirer a curious example of the power of 
analogy. Although a regular verb, it was already, in the 
days of Chaucer, as frequently written with an o as 
with an a, and I con and I conde (German konnte), are 
met with as often as / can. In its use as an auxiliary, 
I conde occurred continually by the side of I would and / 
should, and by the mere force of analogy it also took an 
inorganic /, which was never pronounced, as w r as the case in 
the other two verbs. Then the letter n, unpronounceable 
where it stood, was dropped, and thus I conde became i" 
could. The transformation was no doubt aided and accel- 
erated by a desire to distinguish it from the similar to hen, 
and its past tense, 1 hennede, (German kannte,) which still 
survives in " not to my ken," the Scotch canny, and our 
cunning. 

A severe loss to our English is the giving up of to weor- 
than, once a full, regular verb, expressive of what is to be 
in the future, and so eminently useful in German as wer- 
den. In our day it survives but here and there, in iso- 
lated expressions, as when we speak of the Parcae, spinning 
the Future, as " weird sisters." Besides, we use the Old 
English u way worth ye " in emphatic expressions, as in 
Chaucer's imprecation : — 

" Wo worthe the fayre genie virtutesse, 
Wo worthe that herbe also that doth no bote, 
Wo worthe that is ruthlesse, 
Wo worthe that wight trede eche under fote." 

Troylus, III. 



LIVING WORDS. 309 

Walter Scott follows it in his lines, — 

" Wo worth the chase — wo worth the day 
That costs thy life, ray gallant gray." 

And even in our Bible version occurs, " Thus saith the Lord 
God : Howl ye, Wo worth the day ! " (Ezekiel xxx. 2). 

Another class of verbs rapidly going out of use, and now 
surviving only in a few peculiar expressions, are the so- 
called impersonal verbs. The Anglo-Saxon, especially in 
its older form, seems to have employed the third person of 
verbs with the pronoun in the dative, and occasionally in 
the accusative, very frequently, and it is not unlikely that 
this was done in imitation of the Latin usage. As the 
Saxon gradually emancipated itself from the influence of 
Church-Latin, these expressions became rarer, and were 
soon limited almost exclusively to verbs like to think, to 
seem, etc. At all events, these are the only class now T used 
with the pronoun in this manner. " The Romaunt of the 
Rose" (I. 1231), has, "Her thought it all a vilaine;" and 
Gower says, — 

" With such gladness I daunce and skip, 
Me thinketh I touche not the floor." 

Our Bible version has frequent instances, as, e. g., 2 Sam- 
uel xviii. 27, "Me thinketh the running of the foremost is 
like the running of Ahimaaz." In " Paradise Lost " 
(I. 264), we find, — 

a Mm thought, he by the brook of Cherith stood." 

And the reading of " Richard III." (III. 1), now altered to 
it seems, was formerly, — 

" Prince. — Where shall we sojourn till our coronation? 
" Gloucester. — Where it thinks best unto your royal selfe." 

Even Pope does not disdain to use it in the line, — 

" One came, methought, and whispered in my ear." 

"Me listeth " is of still rarer occurrence, and now used only 
in imitation of older authors, as of Ro. Brunne's, — 

" To the holy land him list ; " 



310 STUDIES IN ENGLISH, 

and of Surrey's " Virgil," — 

" To whatsoever land, 
By sliding seas, me listed them to lede." 

The past tense was formerly lust or lest, and hence is 
derived the kindred verb to lust. Modern authors, when 
they use such expressions at all, now generally substitute 
me seems, as in " Richard III. " (III. 2), — 

"Me seemeth good that, with some little traine, 
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetched 
Hither to London, to be crowned our king." 

Chaucer has, — 

" And al that likith me, I dar wel sayn 
It likith the. 11 

In the dialect peculiar to the seventeenth century we meet 

frequently with the phrase " it likes me well," instead of 

our modern " I like it," and hence the repeated occurrence 

in Shakespeare of " it dislikes me," ( " Hamlet," V. 2 ; 

" Othello," II. 3), and in " King Lear," " His countenance 

likes me not." 

This peculiar use of so-called impersonal verbs must, 

however, be well distinguished from the mere expletive use 

of the pronoun, often called " Dativus Ethicus," and not as 

Gould Brown has it, " a faulty relic of our old Saxon dative 

case." It is, on the contrary, a legitimate use made of the 

same pronoun in all modern languages, giving great force 

and even occasional elegance to certain expressions, which, 

we fear, is unnecessarily neglected by modern writers. 

Shakespeare knew well how to use it with effect, as when 

he says, — 

" She leans me out of her mistress' chamber window, 
And bids me thousand times good night,'' 

and in another place, — 

" He presently, as greatness knows itself, 
Steps me a little higher than his son, 
Made to my father while his blood was poor," 

and even the " Spectator " still says, " A Jew eat me up 
half a ham of bacon." 



LIVING WORDS. 311 

These expletive pronouns must, of course, be read unem- 
phatic and without accent, or they lead to sad misunder- 
standing, as in the well-known instance from the Bible, 
" And he said, Saddle me the ass, and they saddled him." 

This use of the pronoun occurs, also, in the cases where 
it is employed merely as an expletive, without reference to 
a particular thing, as in Milton's lines, — 

" Not lording it over God's heritage," 
and — 

" Come and trip it as you go," 

and in Shakespeare, — 

" I 'U queen it no inch farther," ( Winter's Tale, IV. 3.) 
and even — 

" I come to wive ft." ( Taming the Shrew, I. 2). 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ADVERBS. 

11 Omnis pars orationis migrat in adverbum." 

In the society of every country we meet, occasionally, 
with adventurers of unknown origin, whose place is as un- 
certain as their claims are vague, and who yet, because of 
some useful quality, or on account of the respect paid to 
established usage, are tolerated and entertained. In like 
manner, we find that every language also has its adven- 
turers, words of more or less obscure descent, belonging to 
no one of the regularly defined classes of nouns or verbs, 
subject to no laws and rules, and yet not only incorporated 
in the idiom but always of undeniable importance. This 
exceptional, and generally ill-treated class of words, we call, 
after the fashion of ancient grammarians, adverbs. For 
already the old Latin writers, whenever a word was found 
to be established in use which differed from its ordinary 
manner of signifying, thrust it aside into the class of ad- 
verbs. Home Tooke, with his usual bluntness, went still 
further, and called them " the common sink and repository 
of all heterogeneous and unknown corruptions." This view 
was long considered so satisfactory and, we apprehend, 
especially so convenient, that but little attention was given 
to these pariahs, and they were allowed to hide in dark 
corners and to lose daily more of their original substance 
and appearance. When, at last, the attention of learned 
men was drawn to these unfortunate words, they were made 
the sport of every scribbler, and especially of — 



ADVERBS. 313 

" Those learned philologists who chase 
A panting syllable through time and space, 
Start it at home and hunt it, in the dark, 
To Gaul — to Greece — and into Noah's ark." 

Even the more exhausting research and the more cautious 
investigations of modern linguists have but imperfectly suc- 
ceeded in restoring order to this lumber-room of our lan- 
guage. All we know with certainty is, that in form the 
adverbs are, almost without exception, abbreviations and 
often corruptions of other parts of speech, and that in 
meaning they denote qualities which do not belong to 
objects (nouns), but rather to actions, etc. (verbs). Hence 
their one unchanging peculiarity, common to all, that they 
cannot be joined to a noun, but only to verbs, and, through 
them, to adjectives and other adverbs, as when we say, 
" The orator spoke fluently but not well," or, " She was ex- 
ceedingly fair," and " He looks uncommonly badly." As it 
cannot stand alone, but must needs be accompanied by a 
verb, it received in ancient Greece its name of i7npprjixa, 
and in Latin was called an adverb. 

Our English adverbs, also, as far as we have been able 
to trace them to their first origin, are but remnants and 
degenerate forms of other parts of speech, and owe their 
descent, without exception, to other classes of words. 

Nouns furnish us numerous adverbs, generally in the 
form of the genitive in s, which early became so character- 
istic a mark of the adverbial use of a noun that, although 
originally belonging to masculines only, it was soon added 
to feminine nouns also. When we say, u It must needs be," 
we employ the genitive of the Anglo-Saxon noun need, 
originally neades. The noun way has thus furnished us 
with quite a number of adverbs, in which, however, the 
word wise is occasionally mistaken for ways. Thus the 
familiar longways is, strictly speaking, derived and often 
actually written longwise, as derived from the old wise 
for guise, used, e. g., in our Bible version : " The birth of 



314 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Jesus Christ was on this wise." Always and noways are, 
however, legitimate descendants of way ; so, also, straight- 
ways, sideways, lengthways, endways, the rarer "anyways 
afflicted " in our " Common Prayer," and the " come a little 
nearer thisways " of Shakespeare, ( u Merry Wives," II. 2). 
" Day " has furnished us the modern nowadays, formerly 
written as in " Douglas," — 

" But certainly, the dasit blude now on dayes 
Waxis dolf and dull throw myne unweildy age." 

" While " has given us whiles, shown in its old meaning in 
Shakespeare's " Much Ado," — 

" She died, my lord, but whiles her slander liv'd," 

and now not unfrequently augmented, by mere force of 
analogy, into whilst Amidships and athwartships are well- 
known forms of this class, but perhaps is less familiar as to 
its derivation, as we have lost the old noun hap, or happe, 
used thus in Gower, — 

" The happes ouer mannes hede, 
Ben honged with a tender threde." 

Scotch dialects abound in similar formations, rarely heard 
south of the Tweed, as landgates, hauf gates (halfway), gee- 
ways (bias), nextways, and landways. In " Hudibras " we 
meet with the quaint word anothergates. 

The dative of nouns has furnished but few adverbs now 
in use. Generally it is the dative plural, which thus sur- 
vives from the early days of the Anglo-Saxon in the whilom 
from while, seldom from seld, still used thus by Shakespeare, 
and piecemeal, which has now lost its termination but was 
formerly piecemealum. Rarely do we meet with the da- 
tive singular, and then always with the feminine, as in ever, 
from Anglo-Saxon efe, anciently written aefere, and its 
negative form never. Athwart, then, and when, are looked 
upon by many as accusatives, and why, how, and thus, as 
ablatives. 

A much more numerous class of adverbs has been 



ADVERBS. 315 

derived from nouns by means of additional prepositions, 
which have not unfrequently been incorporated with the 
adverb in our day. In thus forms words like indeed, in 
fact, in truth ; to makes to-day, to-night, to-morrow ; at fur- 
nishes at length, at times, at will ; by, now but rarely used 
in its full form, as in by rights, is generally shortened into 
be, as in betimes, besides, and the rarer — 

u Belike they had some notice of the people." — Julius Ccesar, II. 2. 

In like manner have been derived of course, forsooth, up- 
stairs, and even the French per had to furnish peradven- 
ture, and — 

" Gentles, perchance, ye wonder at this show." 

Midsummer Night's Dream, V. 1. 

In Old English the preposition on seems to have been 
of all the most generally used, but its very frequency has 
led to its almost constant abbreviation in a or o. Thus, 
what was in older authors on righte, on gemang, on baec, 
on veg, and on gegen, is now aright, among, aback, away, 
and again, and in accordance with these forms new ones 
have been made, like abed, aboard, abreast, and aloft. Our 
modern c? clock is an instance of the change of on into sim- 
ple o, which was formerly more frequent, as we may see 
from the line in " Julius Caesar," — 

" Such as sleep cfnights." 

It seems that in the older stages of the language the 
nice difference of meaning which now exists between on 
and in became less distinct, and people using the one for 
the other, they were all represented by on, un, an, or in, 
and in composition by the shorter forms of simple a or o. 
The former, especially, whatever may have been its first 
origin and meaning, was already in Anglo-Saxon used with 
apparent caprice, being now added and now omitted. As 
far as we can judge in a matter so entirely dependent on 
the taste or the fashion of the time, it seems to have been 
mainly used to add expressiveness to all words of an emo- 



S1G STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

tional character, like awake, ajoy, etc. Hence its frequent 
and powerful use in Shakespeare, as, — 

" For Cassius is aweary of the world." — Julius Cwsar. 
il I 'gin to be aweary of the sun." — Macbeth. 
u Tom 's acold." — King Lear. 

The same explanation applies, probably, to the fuller form 
an, (so often met with in our Bible version, as in the words, 
" When I was an hungered,") before vowels and the letter 
h. That even now the use of this adverbial prefix depends 
more on caprice than on any rule, appears from the fact 
that many words which formerly had it, are now used with- 
out it, whilst others have assumed it only in modern times. 
Adjectives have furnished us with adverbs by similar 
changes. In some cases it is here also the genitive in s, 
which is employed for the purpose. Hence, e. g., our else, 
formerly elles, which curiously coincides with the Greek 
dAAws and the Latin alias. In Ritson's " Ballads " we 

find, — 

" And elles I swere withouten fayle." 

Chaucer has — 

" Te Deum was one songe and nothyng elles," (Sumptner's Tale, 43.) 

and in the " Reve's Tale " (16), — 

4 Or els he is a fool, as clerkes sayn," 
showing the gradual process of abbreviation. Eftsoons^ 
which still occurs in Shakespeare, is now entirely out of 
use, but unawares and all the compounds with " ward," as 
upwards, homewards, backwards, towards, and afterwards, 
were adverbs already in Anglo-Saxon, and are not, as John- 
son says, a less correct forms." 

Other adjectives give us adverbs by adding the compar- 
ative form -er, a process which is used in all languages for 
the purpose of making adverbs of locality. The Greek 
had its irpoTtpos, evrepov, and efoSrcpo?, from -n-po, lv, and 
€^oj ; the Latin its prior from pro, inter from in, exterior 
and exterus from ex, subter, prceter, posterns, and obiter. 
The corresponding forms in our English are inner, upper, 
outer or utter, yonder, and many others. 



ADVERBS. 317 

It is another peculiarity of our idiom that many adjec- 
tives are used as adverbs without any change of form. 
Generally we now obtain adverbs from adjectives by the 
ordinary method of adding -ly to the latter, but many of 
these show a mysterious reluctance to take this termination. 
In cases like illy and stilly, the objection might be explained 
by the unpleasant accumulation of I ; in most instances, 
however, it is simply felt but cannot be explained, though 
not unfrequently it is overruled by individual taste or pref- 
erence. We speak thus of selling cheap and dear, although 
we may pay dearly ; we say to play fair, to fall flat, to labor 
hard, to write close, to come late, to wait long, to speak loud 
or low, to run quick, and to stop short. We go even further 
than that, and say full well, pretty good, and wide open; 
though Hume's " the people are miserable poor," and the 
" Spectator's " " How unworthy you treated mankind," 
would not now be considered correct. Shakespeare's 
''indifferent well," and Butler's "wonderful silly," would 
no longer be tolerated. With all this diversity of taste 
there is no rule limiting the adverbial use of these adjec- 
tives. The only point which they have in common is that 
they are all original Anglo-Saxon adjectives, not one of 
French origin being thus used unchanged. It may be 
added that, in modern style, the adjective is considered as 
giving greater force than the derivative adverb. Thus we 
find in Gray, — 

" Full many a gem of purest ray serene," 
and we read — 

" Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring," 
in Pope, and — 

" Science by thee flows soft, in social ease, 
And virtue, losing rigor, loves to please," 

in Savage, and in Milton — 

" As when the sun, new risen, 
Looks through the misty, horizontal air 
Shorn of his beams." 



318 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

There can be no doubt that this constant use of adjectives 
as adverbs, without any apparent change of form, had its 
origin in the fact that in Anglo-Saxon and in Old English 
adverbs were very commonly made from adjectives by the 
simple addition of an e. It matters not whether this letter 
was the old ablative ending, as some maintain, or had 
already then lost its primary power, and merely served to 
distinguish adverbs. This only is certain — that the ad- 
verbial e shared the fate of almost all final e% and was 
quietly dropped in the course of time, so as to reduce 
adjective and adverb alike to the same form. 

Some of these adverbs we can clearly trace through Old 
English writings, e. g., we say " The thing is clean gone," 
from the old adverb clcene which meant entirelv. In like 
manner the Anglo-Saxon adverbs hearde, hlydde, rihte, 
and wide, have given us our expressions, ei he rode hard' 9 
" she spoke loud," "it was done right well," and "the door 
is wide open." An additional evidence of this explana- 
tion is found in the ample use which poets make of such 
simple adverbs, from the preference they naturally give to 
antique forms, while in prose the fuller and more modern 
form in -ly is more common. 

The fact is, however, that in this and similar matters the 
established usage has, in English, a force far greater than 
any law or rule. It constitutes the idiom, in the true sense 
of that word. There is no explanation needed for what is 
sanctioned by usage, for to alter it would involve the neces- 
sity of altering the mode of thought — the whole mind of 
the nation. We cannot change, by any force of reasoning, 
the smallest rule in English. There is, for instance, no 
apparent reason why the two words very and much should 
not be used in the same manner, or exchanged the one for 
the other, and yet it cannot be done. We may say " I am 
very happy to see you," but not " I am much happy." On 
the other hand we may say, " I am much misunderstood " 
(or mistaken), but not " I am very mistaken." Max Miiller, 



ADVERBS. 319 

noticing a change in this rule which is taking place in 
this country, where " I am very pleased/' and like expres- 
sions, are beginning to prevail, ascribes it to an inner 
necessity, a development of the language. It would seem, 
however, as if it were rather the change in the way of 
thinking which distinguishes the Englishman from the 
American. The tendency with the former is to worship 
wealth and to revel in rich colors, rich stories, and rich 
exposures ; the latter is, as yet, more struck with power, 
and hence dwells upon a strong likeness, a powerful speech, 
and an almighty dollar. Thus he comes to prefer very, as 
suggestive of vigor, to much, as expressive of abundance 
and wealth. 

Numerals produce adverbs like adjectives, through the 
genitive form, and give us thus once instead of ones, which, 
although not found in Anglo-Saxon, was probably common 
in early dialects, as it occurs so frequently in old authors. 
Chaucer says in the " Knight's Tale," — 

" Ye wote your selfe, she may not wedde two at ones." 

and in the " Nonne's Priest," — 

" And first I shrew myself, both blode and bones, 
If thou begyle me ofter than ones." 

The frequent use of this word ones with a demonstrative 
than before it, has led to the contraction of the two words 
into one, after the same manner in which nadder has come 
from an adder, and newt from an eft Thus in Madden's 
" Glossary to Gawan," we still find the forms separate, " for 
than ones,' 9 but afterwards they were contracted, and pro- 
duced our English word nonce, now commonly used only in 
the phrase, " for the nonce.' 9 

Twice and thrice are formed in the same way, as we may 
see again in Chaucer, — 

" That had been tides hot and times cold," 

and — 

"He hadde foughten in listes thries." 



320 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

These words are but so many additional proofs of the gen- 
eral tendency of English to shorten, and in the process, 
also, to harden ies into ice, which has already been remarked 
upon in the formation of the plural, where mies became 
mice, dies, dice, and pennies, pence. But what is more re- 
markable still, is the analogous formation of adverbs from 
the genitive of personal pronouns, a derivation so little ap- 
parent in the modern form of the adverbs as to be continu- 
ally overlooked. The Anglo-Saxon hen, still used in Lin- 
colnshire, made formerly its genitive in hennes ; this Chau- 
cer shortens in " Hens over a mile," and now we write it 
hence. "Piers Ploughman" (19) speaks of "Ere she 
thennes yede," which gave us our thence ; and whence is 
formed in like manner. Following, however, the example 
of adjectives, the pronouns also make adverbs in three 
ways : the genitive masculine in es, now shortened into ce 
with silent e, the genitive feminine in er, and the compara- 
tive termination, thus furnishing us with three classes of 
adverbs, corresponding to the above-mentioned three classes 
of pronouns : — 



here, 


there, 


where, 


hence, 


thence, 


whence, 


hither, 


thither, 


whither, 




£-JM. S .the„ne), 


when, 
why, 




thus 






though ( German doch), 


(w)how. 



Verbs furnish but few adverbs, and only such as are either 
simple forms of the verb itself, or gradually becoming ob- 
solete. Such are our familiar may be, for perhaps, and 
" Mayhap you will do more " (Tom Jones, III. 28). The 
once very popular to wit is now hardly used, except in pub- 
lic or legal documents, and so are albeit and howbeit. Not- 
withstanding is of all verbal adverbs, in spite of its awk- 
ward length, the most generally used in our day. 

A class of adverbs marked by striking peculiarities in all 
languages, and not least so in our English, contains the 



ADVERBS. 321 

words used for negation and affirmation. One of the char- 
acteristic features is, that almost all languages possessed 
originally two forms for both, lite the Greek ov and pr}, of 
which one has gradually disappeared. Our French neigh- 
bors distinguish to this day carefully between their si and 
oui, and so do the Swedes, but most of the European idioms 
now employ but one. Our Saxon fathers also had two neg- 
ative and two affirmative forms, which have not vet alto- 
gether disappeared from modern English. The former 
were na, which has given as our no and neither, and ne, our 
not. The difference, according to our usage, however, is not 
the same as of old ; now we employ no to express a nega- 
tive of things, and not of actions, as when we say, " He has 
no money," being in reality used as an adjective, and not as 
an adverb. But in the phrase " He has not money enough," 
we use the verb negatively, and therefore employ a gen- 
uine adverb. Old English authors frequently substituted 
naye for not, a word the origin of which is by no means satis- 
factorily explained. Those who consider aye to be derived 
from the French aye and ayez, go so far as to presuppose 
already a French rfaye, which might have crept into our 
English with other Norman French importations. Others 
trace our aye simply back to the aye, explained before, 
which we use for always, and these see in naye merely a 
contraction of the Anglo-Saxon ne with it, as if meaning 
not always. It is, however, certain that the word was at an 
early period already spelt n'aye. All the older writers are 
very careful in observing the distinction between these two 
negatives, using no in reply to negative, and nay in reply to 
affirmative questions, in precisely the same manner in which 
the French oui and si are employed. Sir Thomas More in 
his " Confutation of Tyndale n (448) explains the use very 
explicitly, thus : " If a manne should aske Tindale hym- 
selfe : Is an heretike mete to translate Holy Scripture into 
English ? To this question, if he will answer trewe, he 
must aunswere Nay and not No. But and if the question 
21 



322 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

be asked hym thus lo : Is not an heretique mete, &c. To 
this question, if he will aunswer true English, he must 
aunswer No and not Nay." A small matter, one might 
imagine, to reproach Tyndale with in a work of such vast 
importance, but showing the great weight given to the use 
of these negatives in the days of yore. 

Our not is more easily traced back to its first descent. It 
is a compound, consisting of the negative ne, and the old 
word viht or wiht. The latter meant originally any thing 
that really exists, a creature, and is the same, in form, as 
our modern wight, which we, however, only use for a man. 
But the Anglo-Saxon viht was also the same as whit, and 
when we now say " not a whit" or, as in Shakespeare's 
"Julius Caesar," — 

" Our youth and wildness shall no whit appear," 

we use it exactly in the old sense of not any thing, not at 
all. From such a very general meaning, suggesting any 
created being in the vaguest sense, it seems to have come 
to signify, after a time, an elf or other uncanny being. In 
this sense it occurs in the " Miller's Tale," — 
" I crouch thee from elves and from wights." 

The next step, no doubt, was to lose sight of the feature of 
life in these beings, and wight was employed to express any 
thing, somewhat after the manner in which the French rien 
is derived from the Latin rem. The word, by itself, is un- 
fortunately going out of use, and our English is thus de- 
prived of a term of original, simple force, the loss of which 
is much to be regretted. We generally substitute for it 
nowadays the Latin persona, a person, which originally 
meant in English not a man but a mask, and is still used 
so on play-bills. Quite recently a still worse expression has 
intruded itself into good society in the word individual, 
which suggests no clear idea to the mass of the people, and 
when used to designate biblical characters, or the Saviour 
himself, as is frequently the case in our churches, sounds 



ADVERBS. 323 

almost irreverent. It is a pity that so few of us remember 
and follow the excellent advice given by the author of 
" Guesses at Truth : " " When you doubt between two words, 
choose the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. 
Eschew fine words as you would rouge, love simple ones as 
you would native roses on your cheek ! " Measured by such 
a standard, how absurd appears the individual by the side 
of the poor wight ! 

It was in this very general meaning of any thing, probably, 
that the negative ne was first added to viht, and thus pro- 
duced by the side of the still surviving aught the compound 
form naught, which was finally shortened into not Chau- 
cer retains the original word, e. g., in " There is no wight 
that hath soverein bounte save God alone." Soon after the 
more recent form appears very generally, and is still occa- 
sionally used, mainly in poetical language. Thus T. H. 
Bailey says : — 

" But should aught impious or impure 
Take friendship's name, reject and shun it." 

Longfellow has, — 

" Naught else have we to give," 

as already our Bible version used it (Proverbs xx. 14), 
" It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer : but when he is 
gone his way, then he boasteth." In Milton's " Paradise 
Lost" the word is rather a favorite, as e. g., — 

" Nor aught avails him now 
To have built in heaven high towers." 

It is probably little more than a caprice of the idiom, that 
our modern English requires the aid of the auxiliary to do, 
with negative verbs. Older writers knew of no such rule ; 
Shakespeare says simply " she not denies it," and Dryden 
has, " I not offend." Now, however, not is admissible by 
itself only after the verb, and then only in very emphatic 
expressions, as when we say " I will not," or " I went not" 
The Anglo-Saxon had, as the Romance languages now 



324 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

have, a so-called double negative, using this not in conjunc- 
tion with other negative adverbs. This is no longer admis- 
sible, though occasionally occurring. Chaucer follows the 
old usage in — 

" He never yet no vilainee ne sayde." 
In Dayton's " Nymphidia " we find, — 

" She mounts her chariot in a trice, 
Nor would she stay for no advice, 
Until her maids who were so nice 
To wait on her were fitted." 

Shakespeare makes frequent use of this peculiar kind of 
" strong language." In " Eichard II." he says : " — 
" I never was nor never will be false," 

in " Measure for Measure," — 

" Harp not on that nor do not banish reason 
For incredulity ; " 

and in "Romeo and Juliet" (IV. 11) we read of — 

" a sudden day of joy 
That thou expectedst not, nor I looked not for." 

The English possessed of old the same power which pro- 
duced so remarkable results in the ancient languages, of 
uniting the negative (ne) with those words to which it ap- 
plied most directly. This was of constant occurrence when 
the latter commenced either with h or with w — letters of 
such faint sound and fleeting import that they were easily 
lost under the sterner influence of the negative. Follow- 
ing thus the example of the Latin in nemo, from ne-homo, 
the Anglo-Saxon had naebbe, from ne-haebbe ; as nullus 
arose from ne-ullus, so did nys from ne-is ; and as nolo from 
ne-volo, so naes from ne-waes. Our German cousin also has, 
by the same process, Niemand and Jemand, Nein and Ein, 
Nirgends and Irgends, Niemals and Jemals. Older authors 
still present us occasionally with the contraction of ne and 
willan, as in Wickliffe's translation (Judges xviii. 9), — 

** Wyle ye be negligent, nil ye, ceese," 



ADVERBS. 325 

and Sylvester says, as late as the end of the seventeenth 

century, — 

" Who nitt be subjects shall be slaves in fine." 

Chaucer had a long list of similar forms, which, to the 
injury of the language, have since been lost, as nis, nam, 
niste, and nadde. Our modern English retains a few, as 
naught and never, none and neither ; others, now out of use, 
might, we think, be profitably and easily recovered, as the 
process of thus prefixing ne is by no means repugnant to 
the language, and the meaning of the negative has not been 
dimmed by long oblivion as that of other similar particles. 
A few expressions of this class are often instinctively used, 
the speaker having no very clear idea of the origin, nor 
perhaps of the precise meaning of the words themselves 
Thus willy-nilly is simply the old will he nill he, after the 
manner of the Latin nolens-volens, and survives at least as 
a familiar phrase. The great Wesley once tried to revive 
its original form and force, and said : " Man wills something 
because it is pleasing to nature, and he nills something 
because it is contrary to nature," but for some reason or 
other he found no imitators. Our hob-nob, also, suggests 
but to the few learned in ancient lore, its derivation from 
haeb naeb, used from of old convivially, when asking a per- 
son whether he will have or not have a glass of wine. 
Hence its present use as a verb, though Shakespeare seems 
to have been accustomed to the word in a larger meaning, 
for he translates it as it were in these lines, (" Twelfth 
Night," III. 4,) "And his incensement at this moment is so 
implacable that satisfaction can be now but by pangs of 
death and sepulchre ; hob-nob is his word, give 't or take V 
Modern English seems to have a tendency of contracting 
words with the negative at the end, rather than at the be- 
ginning. Hence our familiar Iwdnt and Ido'nt. These 
forms are probably of comparatively recent date, for in the 
days of the " Spectator," they were apparently not approved 
of, and we read in No. 135, of this contraction, that" it has 



326 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

very much untuned our language, and clogged it with con- 
sonants." In our day, however, the moderate use of these 
forms is, we believe, universally admitted, and even pre- 
ferred in simple and unaffected language. They are, of 
course, legitimately excluded from solemn addresses, and 
the license must even in lighter trifling not go quite as far 
as Sam Slick's " I sha'nt say I hdnt" or " if it wa'nt" The 
affirmative presents to us much less variety of form and 
meaning. There used to be, as with the negative, so here 
also two distinct forms, Aye and Yes ; the former now anti- 
quated, and the latter alone surviving. Aye seems to have 
been originally the same as that aye, which meant ever, and 
hence the familiar expression, " forever and for aye" It is 
probable, however, that it was pronounced differently from 
the beginning, for as far back as the days of Shakespeare, 
we find it continually spelt a simple i, as in " Hamlet," III. 
1: — 

" To sleep, perchance to dream, /, there 's the rub," 

and hence, also, Romeo's unpardonable pun, — 

" Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but / 
And that bare vowel I shall poison more 
Than the death-darting eye of a cockatrice.'* 

Yes is probably a contraction of the ancient affirmative yea 
with se or sy, the old subjunctive of the verb to be, so that 
it meant originally so be it. Our oldest authors continually 
use gea (now yea) as a simple affirmative, as in Chaucer's 
" By gea and nay," and Shakespeare, (" Merry Wives," IV. 
2, and elsewhere,) " By yea and nay" But the use of these 
important words was strictly limited by the nature of the 
question to which they furnished a reply. Yea and nay 
answered affirmative, yes and no answered negative ques- 
tions, as is still the case in Icelandic and in Swedish, where 
the same difference applies toja and^'o. The rule was ob- 
served by Chaucer, and faithfully down to the middle of the 
sixteenth century ; since then yea and nay have been as- 
signed to the sacred dialect exclusively. Even, there, how- 



ADVERBS. 327 

ever, it was not always regarded, or Sir Thomas More would 
not have found occasion to blame Tyndale so sharply for 
his neglect, and in our modern version it is not at all ob- 
served, for we find (Matth. xvii. 24, 25), " Doth not your 
master pay tribute ? He saith, Yes ! " 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PARTICLES. 

11 Bolts, pins, and hinges of the structure of language." — Jamieson. 

There remains, lastly, of all the words that make up the 
proud fabric of our English, a little people of small particles, 
insignificant in appearance, and at first sight of but small 
importance. But like the long unseen infusoria of our 
globe, which Ehrenberg at last proved to have raised lofty 
mountains and to bear on their accumulated remains vast 
cities, so these despised words, long considered as little 
better than mere rubbish, have of late risen in the esti- 
mation of men and obtained admittance to the honored 
family of words. Once called contemptuously " particles," 
as if they were mere fractions of larger words, and even by 
Plutarch designated as " little fragments of words, used in 
haste and for dispatch, instead of the whole words," those, 
at least, which we know as prepositions have now estab- 
lished their claim to be considered as genuine adverbs. 
The use we make of them in modern English goes far to 
prove the justice of this demand, for we employ them con- 
tinually without other nouns, simply with the verb, as when 
we say " I will call in" " she came to" " he goes by" and 
"it is over" Their importance rises in proportion as a 
nation begins to think more acutely and to express its 
thought more accurately. An uncultivated idiom can do 
without them, a refined idiom even can express a common 
truth in short axioms and direct assertions without their 
aid. But as soon as the maturer mind begins to connect 



PARTICLES. 329 

thought and thought ; as soon as it wishes to modify what 
is not absolute ; to reason, in fine, logically, and to follow 
the metaphysician, these particles become not only impor- 
tant but indispensable. On their proper use depends the 
train of thought and the course of reasoning. Without 
them we can never obtain that perspicuity which is the first 
and greatest beauty of style, and without which the progress 
of the mind in continued discourses can never be clearly 
shown. Hence it is that the Attic writers all, and especially 
Plato, abound in conjunctions, to the distress of the un- 
learned and the intense delight of the thinker. 

Another field in which these particles have, of late, 
acquired unexpected importance is that of Comparative 
Philology. They owe this mainly to Jamieson and to 
Home Tooke, whose prodigious labor and unsurpassed 
ingenuity, though by no means always successful, deserve 
great credit. We look to these fragments now as a seldom 
failing proof of the living affinity between two languages, 
because they possess certain qualities which are not found 
in other parts of speech. They are generally of high antiq- 
uity, most of them, even in the ancient languages, — having 
taken their established form and meaning in ages prior to 
history. At the same time, they have been more perma- 
nent than other terms, as they are the fruit of the mode of 
thinking peculiar to a whole nation, determining the mean- 
ing not only of numerous compound words, but of almost 
every phrase. Finally, they derive no small importance 
from the fact that they are, of all words, least likely to be 
introduced into other languages, because, from the various 
and nice shades of signification which they assume, they are 
far more unintelligible to foreigners than the names of 
objects or actions. They, not unfrequently, more resemble 
arbitrary sounds, endowed with a conventional meaning, 
attached to them by long habit, than real words. This very 
peculiarity, however, has also exposed them to great cor- 
ruption, as foreigners were little "willing, and often as little 



330 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

able, to catch the fleeting sound of apparently insignificant 
words, which, moreover, did not seem to affect the mean- 
ing of the sentence very seriously. Hence they have suf- 
fered more than any other part of speech from phonetic 
corruption, and it is, in most cases, extremely difficult to 
trace them back to their original form and nature. It is 
in this department, especially, that Home Tooke has shown 
the true merit of his prodigious labor and unsurpassed 
ingenuity, though even he has by no means been always 
successful. 

Prepositions are like all so-called particles, not mere 
fragments of other words, casually broken of and aimlessly 
floating about among the mass of other well-classed words, 
but they also were, once upon a time, the names of real 
objects. After a while they were employed to give merely 
a certain coloring, a slightly different shade of meaning, to 
other terms, as' we even now speak of Woo^-thirsty, lily- 
livered, or stone-deaf men, without intending seriously to 
refer to blood, lilies, or stones. Having been found emi- 
nently useful for the purpose, they were continually used in 
the same connection and finally ceased to have an existence 
of their own. They were shortened, as being the inferior 
word belonging to a more important one, and finally lost 
their resemblance to the parent so completely as entirely to 
disguise their first origin. Very few, therefore, can now be 
traced back to their original, full form. 

Much has been done in this direction, especially upon 
the basis of Home Tooke's ingenious and plausible conject- 
ures. The more the subject is investigated, the more 
clearly it is shown that these so-called particles were once 
upon a time independent words. A new proof of this has 
been deduced from the fact that the majority of these 
words serve for a variety of purposes. 

Modern conjunctions, for instance, were in Old English 
prepositions, and on that account followed by " that," as in 
" Before that certain came from James, he did eat with 



PARTICLES. 331 

the Gentiles" (Gal. ii. 12); "After that I was turned, I 
repented " (Jer. xxxi. 19) ; and " Sith that I have told 
you," in Chaucer. Others have to do duty in several 
departments. After is an adjective when we speak of " the 
o/iter-part of a ship," an adverb when we say, that " some 
are they who come after'' a preposition in the words " after 
a while," and a conjunction in "I will call again after you 
return." 

Whilst this confirms the opinion that all such particles 
were originally nouns or verbs, it must be admitted that 
the constant use of this class of words has so completely 
effaced their date and original character, that it is now 
extremely difficult to explain them satisfactorily. Still, 
something may be done, as in the case of through, which, 
with a frequent transposition of the letter r, was anciently 
written thurh, and is the same word as the noun door. Its 
German representative is durch, resembling more our ex- 
panded form thorough, which we continue to use by itself 
and in words like thoroughfare. In old MSS. it is simply 
thurh, as in — 

" Thurh the means of mercie." 

But already in Chaucer we find an odd lengthened form, — 

u Ydlenesse is the thoruJce of all wycked and vilaine thoughtes." 

Our modern with is nothing but the root, or the imperative 
form, of the ancient verb withan, which meant " to join." 
This has given us, in like manner, the corresponding noun, 
so that we speak of a tough withe, to cut withes, and to 
fasten a boat with withes. Other prepositions are of such 
antiquity that all efforts to furnish them with a pedigree 
have proved useless, especially as we find them to have 
appeared, as much shortened forms, in the ancient lan- 
guages. Thus our in is the Greek iv, we recognize ava 
in on, a-rro in o/*and its derivative after, ad in at, liri in by, 
Kepi or irapd in for, with its second form of fore, and irn-ip 
in over. 



332 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Some of these words have become obsolete by that mys- 
terious force operating in language, which defies all out- 
ward control and makes itself felt only in its final effects. 
Thus the Greek /xera, which has its genuine representative 
in the German mit, was once known to Old English also 
as mid, and used as a preposition as late as the year 1530, 
when it occurs in a Kentish MS. Since that time, how- 
ever, it has gradually disappeared as such, and now serves 
only to make useful compounds, as midwik, midshipman, 
and others. A like fate seems to have befallen the old ymb, 
in German um, and representing the Greek a^L The 
early Bible version still uses it, saying, — 

" My eel menige ymb hime saet." — Mark iii. 32. 
But in modern English it has been entirely superseded by 
about. The Anglo-Saxon sithe (in German, seit), has 
undergone a remarkable change. It was anciently used as 
a noun, meaning time, and from this an adverb was formed 
by the use of the genitive case, as sithanes. This was 
shortened in Old English into sithens, and has since suf- 
fered still further contraction into the present since. 

Other prepositions again consist of two or more ele- 
ments, which combined have a peculiar meaning of their 
own. Such are up-on, be-fore, about from on-be-out, and 
above from on-be-upon. This process of joining two to- 
gether is still going on, and we use thus out of yet sepa- 
rately, though they are united in meaning. A few only are 
formed from nouns, either by composition, as in despite and 
across, or by mere juxtaposition, as in behalf and by means 
of. There is, lastly, a small number of foreign words even, 
which are thus employed. We read of the hero of a ro- 
mance that he sailed " via the little island of St. Thomas ; " 
the " Spectator " says, " in lieu of what he had parted 
with ; " Byron, in his " Don Juan," VIII. 42, uses "Malgre 
all which people say of glory," and in " Love's Labor 's 
Lost," V. 2, we even meet with the unpardonable, "Sans 
crack or flaw ; sans sans, I pray you." 



PARTICLES. 333 

As these prepositions were words added to nouns, mostly 
for the purpose of expressing their more delicate relations 
to each other, which the mutilated substantives, for want of 
a declension, could no longer suggest, and which position 
alone might leave doubtful, so conjunctions were employed 
to convey the relation which sentences and parts of sen- 
tences bear to each other. The English is, on the whole, 
remarkably poor in this class of words ; at least, much 
poorer than the Greek and the German, which abound in 
such helps to thought. Nevertheless, here also the Saxon 
element has held its own and admitted but very few Nor- 
man adventurers ; among the intruders we have because, 
except, save, concerning, and a few others. Those which are 
of native growth can generally be traced back to the orig- 
inal word of another class from which they are derived. 
Thus our and has already been mentioned as being nothing 
less than the present participle of an ancient verb, anan, 
to add ; though some etymologists prefer deriving it from 
the past participle of the same verb, anad, which would 
naturally, by constant use, contract into and. The now 
obsolete an, which has of late been entirely superseded by 
if may be traced back to the same root ; it conveyed the 
idea of giving or granting, so that u an it please you " was 
originally the same as " granted it please you." 

Our or is, in like manner, a contracted form, and derived 
from the adjective other, which in ancient writers is 
found almost exclusively used for or. Till is a more com- 
plicated form. It is derived from the two words to hvil, 
which latter is now represented by while, and thus means 
in effect, " to the while," or, " to the time." Hence it is in 
modern English generally limited to expressions of time, 
whilst in old authors it is mixed up with the idea of space. 
Thus Chaucer has, — 

" Now are we driven til hething and til scorne," (4108,) 

whilst Shakespeare says correctly, — 

" Never till to-night, never till now, 
Did I go thro' a tempest dropping fire." — Julius Ccesar, I. 3. 



334 STUDIES EST ENGLISH. 

The ungraceful compound until represents "on to the 
time." 

But is, in like manner and in spite of its simple appear- 
ance, a compound of two words, being formed, after the 
manner of beyond, beneath, before, and behind, of be and ut 9 
the modern out. The old be had manifold duties to per- 
form, but in these words, as in between, literally inter binos, 
it simply conveys the idea of locality, as our modern by, 
and thus be-ut, but, corresponds exactly to the Greek irap- 
€kt6<$. That this derivation of but from be-out is not a mere 
fancy of etymologists appears from the fact that the word is 
provincially still used in its original meaning. In many 
localities but d house means the outer part of the house, or 
the outer room, and ben d house (by-in) is the inner or 
more retired part of the house. Cottagers often desire 
their landlords to build them a but and a ben. 

It is curious to observe the varied methods by which the 
purpose of discriminating between several has been accom- 
plished in different languages. The office of the English 
but is simply to state what is out, or outside, of that which 
has been mentioned, — a distinction which is made with more 
or less precision, according to circumstances. The Greek 
accomplished this by speaking of other things, aX\d ; the 
German sunders one from another, and employs sondern, 
whilst the Romance languages use the idea of preference, 
by means of magis, which gives them mais, mas, and ma, 
somewhat after the fashion of our English rather. 

The short as conceals, also, two component parts, its 
Anglo-Saxon form having been eal svd, meaning " all so H 
or " quite so," which survives in our adverb also. In the 
twelfth century it had already shrunk into als, & form which 
still continues in German, and since that time it has still 
further lost of its substance so as to be reduced to as. 
Lest consists of leas and the in the meaning of " less that," 
but it read already in 1250 leste (R. A., I. 69). The latter 
part, thaet, is nothing more than the pronoun of the same 



PARTICLES. 385 

form, and was already so explained by the famous but 
little appreciated " Grammaire des Messieurs de Port 
Royal," who learnedly pointed out the analogy with the 
Latin quod. 

If has long since been known to be the imperative of 
the Saxon verb gif an, "to give," and shows with perfect 
certainty the gradual process of corruption it has under- 
gone. The connection with the verb " to give " is as evi- 
dent in meaning as in form. If we say, " I will come if I 
can," we mean literally " Give (or given) that I can, I 
will come." It was long written with the initial g, as in — 

" My largesse 
Has lotted her to be your brother's mistresse, 
Gif she can be reclaimed, gif 'not, his prey." 

Sad Shepherd, II. 1. 

By the side of this probable imperative form the participle 
is not wanting. We find in " Lodge's Illustrations " how 
the Queen wrote to Sir W. Cecil in one place, — 

" Yeaven under our signet," 
and in another, — 

" Yeven under seale of our order," 

showing the fragile nature of the initial g and its natural tran- 
sition from a hard to a soft sound, until it finally disappears 
altogether. Chaucer writes it in a curious variety of ways, 
now gif and now if then yeve or yef and even yf The 
initial held its own, however, as late as 1500, and in Lin- 
colnshire it may be heard to this day. The Scotch are 
partial to gin, a contracted form of given, just as they love 
to shorten — they would call it to soften — give into gie. 

The general tendency of the English to dispense with all 
parts of the language that are not essential and indispens- 
able to the conveyance of thought from man to man, however 
ornamental they may be deemed by some, has led to the 
neglect of a large number of conjunctions formerly in use. 
This process was accelerated by the sad abuse into which the 
the writers of the thirteenth century fell, and especially Man- 



336 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

deville. In looking over their pages we are at once struck 
by the prolific family of " all be it " and " how be it," the 
" for as much " and the " in as much," together with what 
Shaftesbury, in his " Miscellanies," calls " the gouty joints 
.... of whereuntos and wherebys, thereofs, there withs, 
etc., and the perpetual drawl of those huge monsters of 
particles, peradventure, notwithstanding, etc." How soon 
and how completely this fashion changed may be judged 
from the fact that Hume objected to Robertson's use of the 
word wherewith. " I should as soon take back," he says, 
" whereupon, whereunto, and wherewithal. I think the 
only tolerable, decent gentleman of the family is wherein, 
and I should not choose to be often seen in his company." 
Campbell also speaks of what he facetiously calls the " lug- 
gage of particles," but it is extremely difficult to draw the 
line with accuracy. Much of it, no doubt, is cumbersome, 
and yet we soon find that without it we cannot well do. 
Thus the judicious use of these conjunctions has become 
one of the most characteristic features of good writers in 
our day, while their abundance in older authors gives to 
their writings a quaint and old-fashioned, but by no means 
unattractive, flavor. 

If the English is poorer in conjunctive particles than either 
the Greek or the German, it abounds, by way of strange 
compensation, in interjections, for which there is no equiv- 
alent, at least in the refined form of other languages. 
This is all the more surprising, as generally only southern 
nations, of excitable temper and vehement utterance, are 
considered fond of this class of words, whilst the staid, sober 
Englishman would not seem given to like indulgence. 

The tendency to energetic brevity, which characterizes 
our language, has, no doubt, led to the frequent use of not 
only genuine interjections, but also of numerous spurious 
ones, which are, in fact, abbreviated sentences, oaths and 
exclamations, like the Latin eccere (per aedem Cereris), Me~ 
hercle (ita me Hercules), medius Jilius (me Dius Alius), and 



PARTICLES. 337 

the English strange ! hark! adieu! welcome! They roused 
Horne Tooke's indignation, and he complains that " the 
brutish, inarticulate interjection, which has nothing to do 
with speech, and is only the miserable refuge of the speech- 
less, has been permitted, because beautiful and gaudy, (sic), 
to usurp a place among words." He strengthens his case 
by adding with some force, "And where will you look for 
the interjection ? Will you find it among laws, or in books 
of civil institutions, in history, or in any treatise of useful 
arts or sciences ? No ; you must seek for it in rhetoric and 
poetry, in novels, plays, and romances ! " 

What would his indignation have been if he could have 
foreseen the day on which men like the learned author of 
" Chapters on Language," and others, would stand up for 
this despised class of words, and in the face of high author- 
ities like Max Miiller, insist upon it, that they, like the imi- 
tation of natural sounds, are " a stepping-stone to true lan- 
guage, both by suggesting the idea of articulate speech, and 
by supplying a large number, if not the entire number of 
actual roots." He would have been distressed in honest 
grief, to find that many look upon them as the very fountain 
from which all other words have come down. Although 
this view is now no longer entertained as generally, nor 
with the same zeal as it was a generation ago, the argu- 
ment still exists, that interjections have occasionally led to 
the formation of certain classes of words, as Ah ! which no 
doubt has produced the whole series of Aryan terms : ^os, 
achen, ache, anguish, angustus, and the word agony itself 
Nor can it be denied that, as Max Miiller himself admits, 
interjections might, in case of necessity, suffice to form 
some kind of language. This means, of course, no more 
than that they would form part of the raw material, exactly 
as we now trace all classes of words more or less clearly 
back to some first root. As the latter is often forgotten, if 
not altogether extinct, so it has frequently happened with 
interjections ; they were — 



338 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

" the ladder 
Whereto the climber upward turns his face, 
But when he once attains the utmost round, 
He then unto the ladder turns his back, 
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees 
By which he did ascend." 

Even thus, forgotten and forlorn in their apparent solitude, 
they are useful members of language : a long speech often 
does not convey as much as one short interjection, and how 
much can be done by them, when aided by gestures and an 
active play of the features, was proved by the last king of 
Naples, who once entertained his inflammable subjects from 
his balcony by a speech consisting of nothing but gestures 
and a few interjections, and succeeded in sending them 
away contented. There is no doubt, that the best of his 
speeches would have failed in producing the same happy 
result. This use of interjections is, of course, possible only 
where nervous sympathy is still active, and nervous organi- 
zation both delicate and sensitive — among children, sav- 
ages, and nations that resemble them in their temperament. 
To such a people refer the words, " He winketh with his 
eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers." 
(Proverbs vi. 13.) The voices of nature are therefore 
many, though Dr. King maintains that — 

" Nature in many tones complains, 
Has many sounds to tell her pains, 
But for her joys has only three, 
And these but small ones : Ha ! ha ! he ! " 

Fortunately man has more, and as many of them have 
passed unaltered into the domain of finished language, they 
have there their own province, and by no means ignoble 
purpose. They are indispensable for the full expression of 
feeling and passion, and when we remember that the tender 
sentiments and passionate emotions of man have at least as 
much to do with his happiness as logic and abstract thought, 
we shall see at once the important part interjections play 
in the drama of life. Mr. Marsh mentions very happily 



PARTICLES. 339 

that Whitfield's " Ah ! of pity for the repentant sinner, and 
his Oh ! of encouragement and persuasion for the almost 
converted listener, formed one of the great excellencies of 
his oratory," and we can easily recall the singular charm 
which some of the loftiest and loveliest passages of our 
poets owe to such words. We will mention only Words- 
worth's touching lines, — 

" She lived unknown, and few could know 
When Lucy ceased to be, 
But she is in her grave, and oh ! 
The difference tome!" 

Some of these interjections are not even aspiring to the 
dignity of words, but remain what Heyse in his great work 
on the " Science of Language " calls happily vocal gestures, 
utterances which are not only apt to be connected with 
certain gestures, but also capable of being represented by 
them. Such are st ! hush ! pish ! pshaw I pooh ! and other 
expressions of contempt or aversion. It is this class, no 
doubt, which first suggested the term interjections, as rep- 
resenting a class of sounds, so to say, thrown in with the 
sentence and yet capable of expressing some emotion, even 
when no verb was added. 

They must, by their very nature, necessarily be brief, else 
they cannot be energetic. Hence they assume, in all lan- 
guages, a contracted or curtailed form. Thus in the Roman 
£Jccere, for Per aedem Cereris, Mehercle for Ita me Hercules 
juvet. Thus in the French Morbleu for Par la mort de 
Dieu, and in our Zooks for By God's looks. These, however, 
can hardly be called genuine interjections, as they are 
rather abbreviated sentences, of which but one word, or at 
best fragments of two words, survive for practical use. 
Such was even the single letter O, for the Greek ov (not), 
with which the poet Philoxenus is said to have replied to 
the tyrant Dionysius, who had invited him to his court at 
Syracuse. 

The most ancient interjection in English is probably the 



340 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Anglo-Saxon vala, literally, woe-lo ! The latter part is 
familiar enough ; it is one of the almost instinctive ejacula- 
tions, for which no explanation is needed. But the two 
together have suffered sadly in the course of their subse- 
quent history. Chaucer already expands the exclamation 
into his habitual wella-way ! Shakespeare employs it, no 
doubt, as it was used by his contemporaries, and calls it, 
with one of those perversions which the common people 
affect so much, and of which we have seen numerous illus- 
trations in another chapter, welladay ! The same change 
took place in two other words of the same class. One is 
the French helas, itself but a spurious interjection, derived 
from the Proven£al troubadours, who were fond of sighing, 
Ai lasso ! literally, "Ah me weary ! " It became our English 
alas ! though it is noteworthy that it is hardly ever used 
by the common people, to whom no doubt, there was always 
something foreign about the word, and hence it comes not 
naturally, just as they consistently substitute fall or harvest 
for the foreign and unintelligible autumn. But even the 
better knowledge of those who used alas ! did not preserve 
it from a speedy change into alack ! as if the hard conso- 
nant at the end gave it both greater force and a more Eng- 
lish air, and from this was subsequently derived the still 
fuller alaclcaday I which, in its turn, gave us the familiar 
lackadaisical. The same happened to the simple exclama- 
tion hey, which was by force of analogy connected with the 
same word, and became heyday. It may be added that 
the original vala still survives in the mournful complaint of 
the men of Ayrshire, who exclaim : Wallywae I whilst in 
Scotland we hear the well-known song, — 

" waly waly up the banks." 

The contemptuous jie is a regular form of the Anglo-Saxon 
verb fian, to hate, from which we have also derived, in the 
form of its present participle, fiand, the modern fiend, the 
man who hates us. Its meaning is now limited to the one 
great fiend of the human race, whilst for other purposes the 



PARTICLES. 341 

French enemy has taken its place. It ought not to be over- 
looked, however, that even aside from this very apparent 
and indisputable derivation, there seems to be an inherent 
expression in this combination of letters ; at least, the cor- 
respondence is singular between the French jfi, the German 
pfui, the Greek <£eu, and the Latin phy, as quoted in Ter- 
ence. There occur occasionally, in English authors of all 
ages, similar interjections, like fo h and faugh, which are, in 
all probability, but the same word in slightly altered forms. 
Thus Shakespeare's Othello says, — 

" Foh, one may smell to such a will most rank." 

A class of great importance, however objectionable on 
account of the want of respect and reverence which their 
use necessarily implies, are those interjections which con- 
tain an appeal to God or sacred personages. In almost all 
cases an effort has been made, for decency's sake, to dis- 
guise the original word, however transparent the veil may 
generally be by which it is hidden. An old author as- 
cribed this desire to conceal to a wish that " the good God 
would not recognize Himself when thus disguised." The 
Normans were great swearers, and their most usual oath 
was " By God ! " so that, as in modern times, an English- 
man on the Continent was often designated but too truly as 
a Goddam ; the Normans also were called by the people of 
England Bygods, and hence, in all probability, our word 
bigot. It is certain that in olden times Norman and Bigot 
were synonymous ; the latter word, for a long time, only 
meant superstitious, and its present meaning is of compar- 
atively recent date. Even the later kings were still fond 
of such interjections, and — 

" hay, hay, the white swan 
By God's soul, I am thy man ! " 

was the motto of King Edward III., whilst one of Chaucer's 
men swears, — 

" I make a vow by Goddes digne bones. 11 



342 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

Thus it came about that the corresponding French form, 
Par Dieu, also soon became well-known all over England. 
It was naturalized as Pardee, but often sadly ill-treated, as 
in Spenser, — 

" Perdy, said Britomart, thi choice is hard." — Fairy Queen, III. 127. 

The same oath — we hope not its constant use — gave the 
proper names of Pardee, Pardoe, and similar ones, as Par- 
sall represents the kindred Par del. 

From the abuse of the name of God, to that of his parts 
and qualities, there was, of course, but a step, and older 
writers are soon found to abound in odd combinations. The 
sovereigns themselves set a bad example, Queen Elizabeth 
having a fancy for God's death, and Charles for the short- 
ened odd's death. This thin disguise became a great favorite 
with the people, and gave rise to numerous odd's blood, odd's 
life, odd's heart, and even — 

" Odslifelings here he is ! " — Twelfth Night, V. 1. 

and the profanely vulgar odd's bobs, odd's pittihins, odd's 
hounds (probably in reality God's wounds) ; in Smollett 
even odd's muggers. 

A still more violent shortening reduced the holy name 
to a single s, as in — 

" 'S blood, I '11 not bear my own flesh so far 
Again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer." 

Henry IV., Part II., II. 2. 

and in the contemporaneous 's death, familiar to all readers. 
The combination already mentioned of God's wounds, 
having reference to the much revered five wounds of the 
Saviour, and used fully in — 

"Ah, by God's wounds, quoth he, and swore so loud 
That all amazed the priest let fall his book." 

Petrucchio and Catherine. 

was subsequently contracted into zounds, zoons, and oons, as 
the now poetical sound of wounds (like sounds), changed 
into the present pronunciation. 



PARTICLES. 343 

Another series of transformations is that from God into 
Gad, and thence into egad, ecod, gadso,gog, and finally 
cock ! The frequent affirmation of the Bible, " May God do 
so and so to me," was no doubt in the mind of those who 
used God-so and then Gad-so, though Home Tooke wishes 
to refer the expression to an Italian word, cazzo, which was 
introduced into England in the time of James I. From 
cock are again derived numerous modifications, the oldest 
of which probably occurs in — 

" They sware all by cokkes bone" — Huntyng of the Hare, I. 117, 
and to which may be added cockes wounds, cockes passions, 
and cockes mother, so frequent in Chaucer's and in Shake- 
speare's writings. Hence, also, the almost unintelligible By 
cocke and pie, once the most solemn oath that could be 
taken, and considered equal in weight and awe to the for- 
midable " By God and his holy word." Cocke, as has been 
mentioned, usurped the name of God, and Pie was the 
familiar name of the table in old Roman missals, by means 
of which, as by our Golden Number, the service of the day 
could be found. Grandison uses od 9 s my life, and there- 
after the word expanded still further into Gadzooks, used 
by Dickens. 

Another combination again was Gods body, which led to 

God's bodikin and od 's bodikin. Shakespeare says, — 

" Odsbody, the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved." 

Henry IV., Part I., II. 1. 

and — 

" Bodikins, Master Page, though I now be old and of peace, if I see a 
swords out my finger itches to be one." — Merry Wives of Windsor. 

In provincial dialects, finally, we meet with still other dis- 
guises, like begor and begosh which occur in Dorsetshire, 
and begorra in Ireland. 

The name of Jesus is more rarely abused thus. We meet 
only among the most vulgar with its corruption, jingo and 
jinkins or jinkers. The only important form is the ancient 
'sfax, meaning originally Christ's fax or hair, the per cap- 
ilium Christi of the church, an oath that was specially for- 



344 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

bidden by a separate canon. The fax in it is the Anglo- 
Saxon word which has, among others, given us the two 
names of Fairfax, the fair-haired, and Halifax, the holy 
hair. 

The Virgin Mary appears first as Ay Mary, which, like 
similar words, was soon shortened into I Marry, or Marry! 
simply. In Chaucer, men's most modest oath seems to be 
an undisguised Mary. Shakespeare has — 

" Marry, none so rank 
As may dishonor him." — Hamlet, II. 3. 

and Johnson seems to speak of it as still in common use in 
his day. A less direct form of the same oath was the favor- 
ite By our Lady ! often treated curtly as Birlady I and sub- 
sequently much used in the diminutive form as By Leakins, 
Our Lakin. Thus we find, — 



and 



" By V lakin a parlous fear." 

Midsummer NighVs Dream, III. 1. 



" Birlady, Sir, ye have rid hard, that ye have." 

Beaumont and Fletcher. 



Of heathen oaths, so common in Italian, we have probably 
but one really naturalized in our midst ; that is the vulgar 
Jeminy ! originally Gemini, an appeal to Castor and 
Pollux. " 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

SHIFTING LETTERS. 
" Verba volant, nee non litterae." 

Among the apparently arbitrary changes which take 
place in all languages, there is none more curious, and, at 
the same time less carefully noted, than the fate of cer- 
tain letters, which are either entirely omitted for no osten- 
sible reason or so frequently transposed from one part of 
the word to another, as to make us suspect an inherent 
tendency in all nations to treat them as what grammarians 
call liquids, and let them flow to their level. As our Eng- 
lish, also, has a few traces of this mysterious power in lan- 
guage, it may not be amiss to mention here one or two of 
the more important illustrations. 

The liquid r is of all the letters of the alphabet the one 
that most frequently changes its place. Already in Greek 
it would thus transform K&pros into /cparos, and KapSca into 
the Ionic Kpa&q ; in Latin, the sea-monster pristis became 
pistris, and verbs like cerno made forms like cretum. Hence 
also, in French, the r is transferred in the change from the 
Latin : vervex becomes brebis, although berger retains the 
true form, and formagium reappears asfromage. It may be 
through such French manipulation that certain English 
words, derived from the Latin, present us their r in new 
places. Thus turba, through a secondary word, turbular, 
became the French troubler, and is now our trouble, as the- 
saurus, through the French tresor, is our treasure. Others 
cannot be traced beyond their French ancestor, and have 
changed in the transition from Normandy to England, as 



346 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

grenier into garner, proposer into purpose, and bordel — if 
that be not an Anglo-Saxon word — into brothel. The Ital- 
ian, also, has furnished us a few such words, in which the 
transposition of the r is clearly traceable. The Greek 
<l>p€veTLKos became Italian farnetico, and now reappears in 
our midst as frantic ; a ship of the town of Ragusa, once 
a very important port with considerable commerce, was 
called an Argosy ; the hermes, which already in Italian is 
called chermosino or cremisino, gives us the two words crim- 
son and carmine, and the ancient Kt/x/^epta has become 
famous again as Crimea. 

Proper names, even, had not escaped the vagaries of 
this strange letter. Our Anglo-Saxon fathers formed one 
of Eal (all) and Bright, which we have changed into Al- 
bert, whilst the Germans retain Albrecht ; Frobisher is but 
a furbisher of arms in olden times ; Brougham, the man 
from the home-burg or borough ; Winthrop and Cracken- 
throp contain the old word thorp, and the town of Dunbar- 
ton was originally the town near the Briton's down. 

Our own English words abound in examples of this trans- 
position, and often form numerous varieties by a simple 
transfer of r, occasionally accompanied by a corresponding 
modification of the radical vowel. The one root bear, in 
Anglo-Saxon beran, thus gives us directly bairn or born, as 

in — 

" for man's love of heuen, 
That bare the blissful barne, that brought us on the rode," 

Piers Phughman ; 

and, developing still farther, hirih, then bier, then berry, bar- 
ley, beer, and even burden. Transposing now the r to join 
the initial, the same root produces bred, breed, brat, brood, 
brother, and bride, ever retaining the under-current of the 
meaning to bear, however variously modified to designate 
its various relations and results. A similarly fruitful root, 
in which r plays a prominent part, is our verb to burn, from 
the Anglo-Saxon brennan. Wickliffe has still, " The chaffis 



SHIFTING LETTERS. 347 

he schal breune a fier unquenchable" (Luke iii. 17), and 
" Forsothe it is better for to be weddid than for to be brent " 
(Corinth, vii. 9). Even Sir Thomas More says, — 

" But would to God these hatefull workes all 
Were in tyre brent to powder small." 

The Germans have here also retained the original form, 

and use to this day brennen, and so we form almost all the 

derivatives of the root, except burnish, which we get from 

the French brunir. Thus we speak of a brand snatched 

from the fire, and of a brant fox, when his hair looks burnt, 

whence Longfellow sings, — 

" I have given you brant and beaver." 

From the same word comes our brandy, w r hich was at first 
brand-wine, distilled by fire, as the Germans still call it 
Branntwein ; bran, also, retains the meaning, suggesting the 
brown, husky part of ground wheat, and that which is bran 
new, i. e., newly come out of the fire, and still shining. 
Brown is the burnt color, as bronze is designated in the 
same way. 

Board and broad are thus one and the same word, both at 
first written alike, brede, and hence the Old-English Bible 
version speaks of — 

"Nayled on a brede of tre," 

whilst the Germans retain even now the r in the first place 
in both words, Brett and breit, and we return to the older 
form in breadth, instead of saying broadth. The boar makes 
an adjective, anciently boaren, but now brawn. A cart and 
a crate are again the same word, and so are gross and coarse. 
Our cress (nasturtium) was, in its Anglo-Saxon form, cerse 
or caerse, and hence, at a very early period, the absurd mis- 
take in the popular phrase, " I do not care a curse," which 
was meant at first to express, " I do not care a (water) 
cress." Even Chaucer says, — 

" Of paramours ne raughthe not a Jeers. 11 — Miller- s Tale y 
a form from which the transition to curse appears very short 



348 STUDIES IN ENGLISH. 

and natural. Very much the same process has gone on in 
grass, which was originally gars, from which our gorse, and, 
perhaps, also, our grouse. Douglas has, — 

" The greene gers bedewit was and wet," — V. 138, 
and the people of Yorkshire say to this day gerse for grass. 

It has already been mentioned that the so-called vulgar- 
ism afeard, is so only as far as fashion is allowed to control 
a language, for the word is correctly formed from the verb 
to fear, and it is only this tendency to transpose the r, which 
has produced words like afraid and fright. 

It need hardly be stated that there is no difference be- 
tween firth and frith, nor between frame and form. The 
modern word horse is an example of violent change ; it was 
anciently h?*os, remains so in German as Boss, and survives, 
even in English, in the walrus, the whale-horse or sea-horse 
of our ancestors. The Anglo-Saxon verb scearan has re- 
tained its r in its first place in most derivatives — in share 
and shears, and sheers, in shire, shore, shorn and short, in 
shirt and skirt, in sheer and sharp, but not in shred, which 
exists by the side of pot-sherd, the contracted form of 
sheared. It has been shown already how thur, the German 
Thur, and our thorough, is the same with door. Thrill is 
derived from the Anglo-Saxon thyrlian, probably connected 
with thur and thyr, of which it looks like a diminutive form, 
and hence " The prayer of hym that loveth hym in his 
prayer thyrleth the clowdes," and more curiously our modern 
word nostril, as we learn from Spenser, — 

" Flames of fyre he threw forth from his large nosethrills." 

Fairy Queen, I. 11, 22. 

Work has transposed the r in wright and wrought, but re- 
tained it in its place in irksome, anciently wyrksome. 

Occasionally this same letter r is capriciously inserted 
where it is not due, or left out where it ought to make its 
appearance. Thus the Anglo-Saxon word guma, a man, 
has, for some now unknown reason, been endowed with an r, 
and for the correct form bride-guma, the man of the bride, 



SHIFTING LETTEES. 349 

we now say hridegroom, and speak even of a groom without 
such support. The French piquer has become with us to 
prick; and the Tatars of Asia, with a faint disposition per- 
haps to trace them back to Tartarus, from whence their 
wild hordes invading Europe in the fourteenth century were 
said to come, have been changed into Tartars, so that Spen- 
ser already uses Tartary for hell. 

The Anglo-Saxon sprecan, on the contrary, has lost its r, 
and become to speak, although the Germans still say spre- 
chen ; preon is now simply pin, and spreckle, which is not 
unfrequently heard in Scotland, plain speckle. The Latin 
fringilla, is our finch, and temperare, in French tremper, our 
temper. 

The word ort, which in Anglo-Saxon stood for the later 
wort (German Wurzel), has lost its r in ort-yard, our orchard, 
and transferred it to the beginning of the word in its mod- 
ern form root. Lychwort, the herb pellitory, as Halliwell 
calls it, presents us the old form fully, whilst we see it most 
successfully disguised in the expression, " Odds and ends," 
which comes from the once usual " ords and ends." 

Other letters are not so regularly, but still occasionally 
liable to be transferred from one place to another. Thus 
there is good reason to believe that flock and/o^ are origi- 
nally one and the same word. The French ingot, with the 
article an before it, soon became niggot, as it is spelt in 
North's " Plutarch ; " and in our day it has unexpectedly re- 
appeared as nugget. S and k interchange not unfrequently, 
and the much blamed vulgarism of substituting to axe for 
to ask, finds more than one justification in older authors. 
The fact is, the verb was originally acsian, and hence Wick- 
liffe is not so far wrong when he says, "Axe ye and yhe 
schulen take ; " nor Chaucer in his constant use of " to axe " 
and " an axing." Hence, also, the close connection between 
a tax and a task, so that Hotspur can say " has tasked the 
whole state," when he means taxed. 



ETYMOLOGY. 



A, 267, 285. 

A, an, any, 259, 266, 333. 
Abandon, 288. 
Abase, 288. 
Abbotsford, 111. 
Aber, 80. 
Aberdeen, 87. 
Abergavenny, 87. 
Abernethy, 87. 
Abide, 287. 
About, 332. 
Above, 332. 
Abstract, 41. 
Accept, 41. 
Acland, 140. 
Acorn, 170. 
Acquaintance, 141. 
Action, 190. 
Acton, 106, 140, 170. 
Acute, 41. 
Adam, 115. 
Adams, 125. 
Adder, 270. 
Admiral, 207. 
Advocate, 41, 45, 164. 
Aelfric, 166. 
Aethelings, 158. 
Afeard, 287, 348. 
Again, 315. 
Agony, 337. 
Ah, 337. 
Aid, 200. 
Alaric, 156. 
Alarm, 288. 
Alas, 340. 
Albert, 346. 
Aldborough, 108. 
Alexandria, 104. 
Algebra, 268. 
Alfred, 115. 
Alligator, 268. 
Alms, 29, 30, 183. 
Alnwick, 107. 



Also, 334. 
Always, 314. 
Am, I, 300. 
Ambassador, 75. 
Amidst, 237. 
Among, 102, 318. 
Amongst, 237. 
Ancaster, 90. 
Anchor, 31. 
And, 279. 
Anderson, 125. 
Anemone, 79. 
Anglesea, 99. 
Anguish, 337. 
Animus, 46. 
Anson, 125. 
Antic, 80, 212. 
Antioch, 104. 
Antique, 80, 212. 
Any, 223. 
Ap, 117. 
Ape, 277. 
Apennine, 85. 
Apollo, 121. 
Apollonia, 137. 
Apothecary, 270. 
Arabesque, 223. 
Archbishop, 119. 
Arden, 88. 
Ardennes, 88. 
Ardmore, 88. 
Are, 303. 
Argosy, 346. 
Aright, 315. 
Arkansas, 79. 
Arnold, 163. 
Arras, 143. 
Art, thou, 303. 
Art, black, 206. 
As, 334. 
Ashby, 110. 
Ashkettle, 208. 
Ask, 350. 
Assay, 80. 
Asterisk, 163. 



Ate, 75. 

Athenaeum, 202. 
Athlone, 87. 
Athwart, 245, 314. 
Atkinson, 125. 
Aught, 323. 
Augur, 271. 
August and august, 75. 
Austere, 223. 
Autun, 104. 
Avon, 84, 87. 
Away, 315. 
Aweary, 316. 
Aye, 321, 326. 
Azure, 268. 

B. 

Baby, 157. 
Bachelor, 147, 171. 
Backrag, 207. 
Badge, 61. 
Bag of nails, 131. 
Bairn, 346. 
Balcony, 80. 
Baldaquin, 143. 
Baldersly, 97. 
Balloon, 163. 
Balm, 36. 
Balsam, 136. 
Bangor, 88. 
Banister, 197. 
Bantling, 159. 
Barbara, 137. 
Barber, 149. 
Bardsey, 99. 
Barebones, 133. 
Barmouth, 87. 
Barnum, 104. 
Barracoon, 163. 
Barrister, 152. 
Barrow, 56. 
Base, 213. 
Basilisk, 163. 
Bask, 284. 



352 



ETYMOLOGY. 



Bastard, 152, 164. 
Batavia, 233. 
Battle, 110, 161. 
Baxter, 152. 
Baynard Castle, 110. 
Bayonet, 144. 
Bays and baize, 74. 
Bear, 346. 
Beauchamp, 123. 
Beaudesert, 110. 
Beauty, 165. 
Beaux, 185. 
Beck, 86. 

Becket, Thomas a, 121. 
Beckon, 281. 
Bedlam, 211. 
Beefeater, 205. 
Beer, 346. 
Beest thou, 300. 
Beeves, 178. 
Begone, 287. 
Belcher, 129. 
Beldame, 212. 
Bell and Savage, 131. 
Bellini, 126. 
Bellow, 50, 59. 
Bellows, 183. 
Belly, 59. 
Belly-bound, 203. 
Belong, 287. 
Ben Morris, 85. 
Beneath, 233. 
Benjamin, 115. 
Benoni, 115. 
Benson, 116. 
Berkley, 105. 
Bernard, 115, 163. 
Bertha, 115. 
Berwick, 87, 107. 
Beside, 315. 
Best, 233. 
Better, 145, 233. 
Between, 260. 
Betwixt, 237, 260. 
Beware, 287. 
Bicetre, 90. 
Biddulph, 115. 
Bier, 346. 
Bigot, 127, 341. 
Billingsgate, 126. 
Billow, 99. 
Birth, 346. 
Biscuit, 171. 
Bishop, 30. 

Bishop Monckton, 111. 
Black art, 206. 
Blame, 197. 
Bleak, 62, 221. 



Blindworm, 207, 278. 
Blunt, 133. 
Board, 347. 
Boileau, 132. 
Bonaparte, 136. 
Bones, 126. 
Boor, 215. 
Borough, 56. 
Bottle, 161. 
Boucher, 149. 
Bowcock, 158. 
Bowen, 120. 
Bowyer, 147. 
Bradford, 103. 
Braham, 116. 
Brandy, 347. 
Brat, 217, 346. 
Bravo, 55. 
Brawn, 347. 
Brazen, 222. 
Breed, 216, 346. 
Breese, General, 151. 
Brethren, 181. 
Brewster, 152. 
Bridal, 170. 
Bride, 217, 346. 
Bridegroom, 349. 
Bridewell, 211. 
Briggs, 126. 
Broad, 347. 
Brodie, 120. 
Brothel, 346. 
Brother, 148, 217, 346. 
Brougham, 108, 346. 
Browning, 158. 
Brunehault, 135. 
Buckingham, 103. 
Budget, 59. 
Buff, 201. 
Bulge, 59. 

Bull and Mouth, 131. 
Bullock, 158. 
Bully, 59. 
Bumper, 150. 
Bumpkin, 156. 
Bundle, 162, 170. 
Burg, 108. 
Burgess, 80. 
Burg win, 130. 
Burlesque, 223. 
Burly, 215. 
Burn, 346. 
Burton, 106. 
Bus, 200. 
Buster, 204. 
But, 334. 
Butcher, 149. 
Butler, 149. 



Buttock, 158. 
Buxom, 226. 
Buzzard, 163. 
By, 97. 
By-laws, 98. 
Byron, 136. 

c. 

Cab, 200. 
Cadet, 199. 
Caitiff, 36, 220. 
Caius, 136. 
Calculate, 258. 
Calico, 143. 
Cam, 84, 87. 
Cambric, 143. 
Cambridge, 87. 
Camel, 87. 
Can, 308. 
Candle, 31. 
Cannon, 73. 
Canny, 308. 
Canon, 73. 
Canopy, 48. 
Cantire, 85. 
Canton, 263. 
Caper, to, 277. 
Capon, 58. 
Captain, 80. 
Captive, 36, 220. 
Carlin, 155. 
Carmine, 346. 
Cart, 347. 
Cassel, 90. 
Castle, 100, 161. 
Castor, 90. 
Castrum, 28. 
Cat, 58. 

Cat, Whittington's, 205. 
Cat-and-Wheel, 131. 
Cataract, 48. 
Cater, 58. 
Caterer, 148. 
Catkin, 156. 
Cattle, 58. 
Causeway, 203. 
Cavaignac, 117. 
Cavalry, 210. 
Chaff, 197. 
Chalmers, 129. 
Chambers, 129. 
Chanticleer, 147. 
Charles, 216. 
Charter, 149. 
Charter House, 131. 
Chattle, 58. 
Chaucer, 129. 



Cheat, 198. 
Cheddar, 87. 
Cherry, 143. 
Cherubim, 175. 
Chester, 90. 

Chicken, 182. 

Chiefest, 236. 

Children, 181. 

China, 143. 

Chine, 269. 

Chinese, 178. 

Chintz, 143. 

Chivalry, 75. 

Cholera, 48. 

Cholmondeley, 128. 

Chord, 73. 

Church, 30, 62. 

Churl, 155, 216. 

Cicerone, 55. 

Cinque Ports, 111. 

Cit, 200. 

City, 165. 

Clan, 119. 

Clayey, 223. 

Clean, 221. 

Clergy, 165. 

Clerk, 30. 

Clomb, 292. 

Close, 261. 

Clown, 213. 

Coarse, 347. 
Cock, 343. 

Cockerel, 161. 
Coffee, 178. 
Colchester, 90. 
Cold Harbor, 91. 
Collier, 147. 
Colonia, 28. 
Color, 180. 
Colosseum, 202. 
Committee, 165. 
Companion, 214. 
Constantinople, 104. 
Copper, 143. 
Corbeil, 161. 
Cord, 73. 

Cordwainer, 143, 150. 
Corn, 170. 
Cornelian, 197. 
Cornwall, 86. 
Costume, 80. 
Could, 63, 308. 
Council, 80. 
Count, 190. 
Country, 165. 
Country dance, 203. 
County, 157. 
Court, 190. 



23 



ETYMOLOGY. 

Court cards, 209. 
Cousin, 154, 199. 
Coward, 164. 
Coxcomb, 152. 
Coy, 36. 
Cozzen, 199. 
Crab, 203. 

Crackenthorpe, 346. 
Crate, 347. 
Cravat, 143. 
Crawfish, 204. 
Crayon, 143. 
Crazy, 220. 
Cress, 347. 
Crevasse, 80. 
Crevice, 80. 
Crew, 292. 
Crimea, 346. 
Crimson, 346. 
Crow, to, 277. 
Crown, 31. 
Cutters, 46. 
Culverkey, 209. 
Cunning, 308. 
Cunningham, 98. 
Curate, 164. 
Currants, 206. 
Curriculum, 46. 
Currier, 149. 
Curse, 347. 
Custom, 80. 
Cuts, John, 135. 

D. 

Daffodil, 270. 
Dagger, 149. 
Daisy, 170. 
Damask, 143. 
Dandelion, 203. 
Danton, 133. 
Dapper, 221. 
Darling, 160. 
Dastard, 163. 
Daubeny, 133. 
Davis, 125. 
Dawn, 60. 
Day, 59. 
Deal, 170. 
Death, 130, 137. 
DeBrett, 130. 
DeQuincey, 128. 
Deign, 62. 
Demijohn, 208. 
Dempster, 153. 
Den, 88, 103. 
Derby, 98. 
Derwent, 84. 



;53 



Desert, 80. 
Devil, 30, 130. 

Dexter, 153. 

Diaper, 143, 270 

Dickens, 125. 

Did, 294. 

Dieu, 127. 

Digby, 98. 

Digit, 258. 

Dimity, 143. 

Dioclesian, 134. 

Disciple, 80. 

Distraught, 293. 

Dividend, 298. 

Dixon, 125. 

Do, 302. 

Dobbin, 123, 194. 

Dobree, 133. 

Dog, to, 277. 

Dogmata, 185. 

Dole, 170. 

Dollar, 144. 

Doncaster, 90. 

Doolittle, 132. 

Doom, 166. 

Dormouse, 204. 
Downs, 106. 
Drab, 148. 
Drachm, 73. 
Draft, 73. 
Drake, 150. 
Dram, 73. 
Draper, 148. 
Draught, 73. 
Draw, 60. 
Drinkwater, 132. 
Dropsy, 199. 
Duchv, 165. 
Duc^ 278. 
Dull, 164. 
Dullard, 164. 
Dumb, 221. 
Dumbarton, 107, 346. 
Dummy, 157. 
Dun, 106. 
Dunbar, 107. 
Dunce, 142. 
Dunquerque, 106. 
Durward, 164. 

E. 

Ea, 99. 
Eager, 220. 
Earl, 24. 
Early, 229. 
Earthen, 222. 
Ecod, 343. 



354 



ETYMOLOGY. 



Ecu, 159. 
Edge, 61. 
Edinboro', 108. 
Edward, 115. 
Een, 181. 
Eft, 270. 
Egad, 343. 
Egbert, 115. 
Elder, 230. 
Eleven, 262. 
Elixir, 268. 
Ellis, 116, 125. 
Else, 316. 
Ely, 99. 
Emerods, 206. 
Empty, 221. 
Enderraost, 237. 
Energy, 49. 
Engineer, 147. 
England, 108. 
Enough, 23, 286. 
Enroughty, 134. 
Ensign, 203. 
Entrail, 162. 
Epsom, 103. 
Er, 146. 
Ere, 229. 
Ermine, 143. 
Erst, 229. 
Escheat, 198. 
Essay, 80. 
Essex, 19, 108. 
Estrange, 198. 
Evening, 159. 
Ever, 314. 
Evil, 221. 
Ewhurst, 89. 
Ewridge, 89. 
Exact, 41. 
Exeter, 90. 
Extasy, 48. 
Ey, 97. 
Eyen, 180. 

F. 

Fact, 36. 
Faction, 36. 
Fag, 197. 
Fair, 146. 
Fairfax, 133, 344. 
Fairy, 142. 
Fallow, 56. 
Fan, 268. 
Fancy, 199. 
Fare, 288. 
Farthing, 156, 159. 
Farthingale, 204. 



Fashion, 36. 
Fatherland, 193. 
Faulkner, 129. 
Feat, 36. 
Feet, 176. 
Feint, 300. 
Fellow, 216. 
Ferret, to, 277. 
Ferrule, 162. 
Ferry, 288. 
Feverfew, 31, 206. 
Feverish, 224. 
Fibber, 153. 
Fibster, 153. 
Fie, 340. 
Fiend, 296, 340. 
Fig, 31, 201. 
Filibuster, 204. 
Filly, 155. 
Finch, 349. 
Finikin, 156. 
Firkin, 156. 
Firth, 348. 
Fitz, 121. 
Flail, 162. 
Flaxen, 222. 
Fletcher, 149. 
Flirt, 202. 
Flock, 349. 
Flower, 190. 
Floyd, 120. 
Fluellen, 120. 
Foil, 197. 
Foliage, 167. 
Folk, 349. 
Fondling, 160. 
Foolish, 224. 
Foolscap, 167. 
Foot, 180. 
Forced meat, 204. 
Ford, 288. 
Forse, 24, 99. 
Fortnight, 100. 
Foster, 153. 
Fountain, 80, 163. 
Fowl, 162. 
Frantic, 223, 346. 
Freedom, 166. 
Freemason, 203. 
French, 224. 
Friday, 128. 
Friend, 296. 
Fright, 348. 
Frith, 348. 
Frobisher, 346. 
Frolic, 225. 
Front, 190. 
Frontispiece, 206. 



Fulsome, 226. 
Furbelow, 207. 
Furlong, 199. 
Furlough, 101. 
Furnace, 136. 
Furnish, 223. 

G. 

Gadabout, 279. 

Gadso, 343. 

Gallant, 80. 

Gallant, 80. 

Gallows, 56. 

Gander, 150. 

Gang, 280. 

Gangrel, 162, 280. 

Gangway, 280. 

Garden, 59, 182. 

Garibaldi, 117. 

Garner, 346. 

Garnish, 223. 

Gascoyne, 130. 

Gasp, 284. 

Gauze, 143. 

Gaveloc, 158. 

Geese, 176. 

Genii, 186. 

Gent, 200. 

Genteel, 36, 80, 220. 

Gentle, 36, 80, 220. 

George and Cannon, 132. 

Gerkin, 156. 

Germans, 183. 

Gertrude, 115. 

Ghostly, 225. 

Gibberish, 215. 

Gibson, 125. 

Gifford, 164. 

Gift, 300. 

Gil, 24, 99. 

Gillyflower, 205. 

Gin, 200. 

Girl, 155. 

Glad, 221. 

Gleesome, 226. 

Gloucester, 90. 

Gnome, 62. 

Go, 142, 280. 

Goat and Compasses, 132. 

God, 75, 221. 

Goddam, 341. 

Goddard, 127, 164. 

Godhead, 166. 

Godlike, 225. 

Godwin, 127. 

Golden, 222. 

Good, 75, 221. 



ETYMOLOGY. 



355 



Goodluck, 208. 
Gooseberry, 208. 
Gorse, 348. 
Gospel, 169. 
Gossamer, 208. 
Gossip, 217. 
Gotham, 104. 
Gotobed, 132. 
Government, 75, 80. 
Grandee, 165. 
Granny, 157. 
Grant, 199. 
Grass, 348. 
Greenwich, 107. 
Gregson, 125. 
Grimsby, 97. 
Grocer, 148. 
Grog, 200. 
Groom, 349. 
Gross, 220, 347. 
Grosvenor, 129. 
Grotesque, 223. 
Grouse, 347. 
Guard, 60. 
Guatkin, 120. 
Guelders, 59. 
Guelph, 122. 
Guess, 59. 
Guide, 59. 
Guilt, 59. 
Guise, 59, 60. 
Gumdragon, 206. 
Gyre-carline, 155. 

H. 

Hackney, 100. 
Haggard, 163. 
Hair, 184. 
Hal^vy, 116. 
Halifax, 344. 
Hamlet, 103, 162. 
Hampden, 103, 107. 
Handiwork, 286. 
Hap, 89. 
Hautboy, 203. 
Havelok, 96, 158. 
Havoc, 146, 278. 
Hawk, 146, 278. 
Hayward, 164. 
He, 245. 
Head, 301. 
Heard, 75. 
Heaven, 301. 
Heavenly, 225. 
Hector, to, 276. 
Hedge, 61. 
Heiress, 154. 



Helena, 114. 
Helter-skelter, 197. 
Hence, 320. 
Henpecked, 301. 
Herd, 75. 
Herford, 103. 
Heroes, 185. 
Heroine, 155. 
Herrgote, 127. 
Herring, 158. 
Hevday, 340. 
Hillock, 158. 
Him, 174. 
Himself, 254. 
Hindermost, 237. 
Hireling, 160. 
Hobnob 325. 
Hockey, 278. 
Hocus-pocus, 197. 
Hodgkin, 125. 
Hogarth, 164. 
Holborne, 131. 
Hollands, 200. 
Holy, 73, 223. 
Hooker, 207. 
Hopetoun, 106. 
Horizon, 48. 
Horse, 180, 195, 348. 
Hosen, 181. 
Hostler, 147. 
House, 283. 
Huckstep, 130. 
Huckster, 151, 278. 
Hum, to, 279. 
Humber, 87. 
Human and Humane, 80. 
Humus, 46. 
Hunchbacked, 301. 
Hundred, 263. 
Hurricane, 204. 
Hussy, 55, 152, 217. 
Hustings, 101. 



I, 240. 

I, for aye, 326. 
Ice, 75. 
Ideas, 185. 
If, 335. 
Ignoble, 228. 
Ill, 221. 
Ilka, 62. 
Incapable, 227. 
Incense, 80. 
Incog, 201. 
Indexes, 186. 
Indigo, 143. 



Infante, 218. 
Infantrv, 210. 
Ing, 126. 
Inimical, 46. 
Innermost, 237. 
Inver, 86. 
Inverary, 87. 
Irksome, 226, 348. 
Is, 75, 304. 
Isinglass, 207. 
Isis, 84. 
Islet, 161. 
Issue, 197. 
It, 245. 
Its, 251. 



Jackson, 125. 

Janeway, 129. 

Japan, to, 276. 

Jaunty, 220. 

Jealous, 36. 

Jeminy, 344. 

Jenner, 149. 

Jeopardy, 198. 

Jerkin, 156. 

Jersey, 99. 

Jerusalem artichoke, 207. 

Jingo, 344. 

John a Nokes, 121. 

Joint, 300. 

Jole, 197. 

Jolly, 220. 

Journey, 165. 

Joysome, 226. 

Judge, 61. 

Judgment, 80. 

Juggler, 59. 

K. 

Kempis, Thomas &, 121. 
Ken, 308. 
Kendal, 170. 
Kenmore, 85. 
Kennard, 164. 
Kensington, 126. 
Key, 207. 
Kickshaw, 204. 
Kin, 94, 124, 126, 156. 
Kindle, 182. 
Kine, 181. 
King, 126, 218. 
Kinrose, 85. 
Kirkby, 97. 
Kist, 62. 
Kitten, 182. 



356 



ETYMOLOGY. 



Knapsack, 216. 
Knave, 62, 216. 
Knight, 62, 210. 
Knot, 100. 
Know, 62. 
Knutsford, 100, 103. 



Lackadaisical, 340. 
Lakin, 156, 344. 
Lambkin, 156. 
Lancaster, 90. 
Landed, 301. 
Landscape, 167. 
Lantern, 206. 
Lark, to, 277. 
Lass, 155. 
Laundress, 155. 
Law, 60. 
Lawn, 197. 
Lawson, 125. 
Lawyer, 147. 
Lazaretto, 143. 
Lazuli, 268. 
Lea, 105. 
Leamington, 136. 
Learn, 281. 
Least, 233. 
Leech, 206. 
Le Fevre, 128. 
Legal, 36. 
Legatee, 165. 
Legend, 298. 
Legh, 105. 
Leghorn, 143, 206, 
Leicester, 90. 
Leigh, 105, 224. 
Leighton Buzzard, 111. 
Leisure, 71. 
Lemon, 152, 234. 
Length, 231. 
Lent, 231. 
Leonard, 163. 
Less, 233. 
Lest, 334. 
Levant, to, 276. 
Levee, 165. 
Le Vert, 128. 
Libel, 167. 
Lice, 176. 
Lichfield, 224. 
Lichen, 48. 
Lichowl, 224. 
Licorice, 205. 
Lief, 234. 
Lifeguard, 101. 
Like, 225. 



Likewake, 225. 
Lily, 268. 
Limner, 269. 
Lincoln, 92. 
Linnet, 161. 
Lioness, 154. 
Little, 162, 170. 
Liturgy, 48. 
Livery and Seizen, 

199, 340. 
Loadstar, 206. 
Loadstone, 206. 
Loch, 62. 
Lonesome, 226. 
Longoyster, 203. 
Longways, 213. 
Lordling, 160. 
Lore, 281. 
Loring, 130. 
Lover, 192. 
Loyal, 36. 
Lusignan, 119. 
Lust, 310. 
Lutestring, 207. 
Lyceum, 202. 
Lynch, to, 276. 

M. 

Mac, 117. 
Mackenzie, 61. 
McGowan, 118. 
Mclntyre, 118. 
McPherson, 118. 
Magnus, 136. 
Maiden, 155. 
Maidenhead, 167. 
Main, 146. 
Maiden, 107. 
Malkin, 156. 
Malpas, 110. 
Man, to, 275. 
Manchester, 90. 
Mandrake, 204. 
Manhood, 166. 
Manikin, 156. 
Manner, 180. 
Manning, 158. 
Manor, 109. 
Manuel, 116. 
Marauder, 212. 
Margin, 190. 
Marjoribanks, 128. 
Mart, 180. 
Marrow, 56. 
Marry, 344. 
Marshall, 210. 
Martinet, 161. 



Martins, 194. 
Marvel, 162. 
Mary, 344. 
Mary, St., Overy, 200. 
Marygold, 208. 
Marylebone, 131. 
Mass, 31. 
Massena, 116. 
to, Massinger, 132. 
Mattox, 127, 158. 
Maud, 200. 
Maudlin, 200. 
Maw, 60. 
Maximum, 46. 
May, 305. 
Mean, 180. 
Medici, 126. 
Megrim, 206. 
Melancthon, 135. 
Men, 176. 
Menay Bridge, 99. 
Merode, 212. 
Mersey, 99. 
Methinks, 309. 
Mice, 176. 
Mid, 332. 
Middle, 170. 
Middlesex, 108. 
Midge, 67. 
Might, 74. 
Mildew, 171. 
Million, 258. 
Milner, 149. 
Milton, 106. 
Mincing Lane, 132. 
Mine, 249. 
Minimum, 46. 
Minion, 156. 
Mint, 31, 36. 
Minute, 180, 258. 
Minx, 156. 
Mires, 116. 
Miscreant, 213. 
Mitchell, 124, 232. 
Mite, 74, 180. 
Mixon, 125. 
Moat, 74. 
Mob, 200. 
Moe, more, 231. 
Mold, 111. 
Molyneux, 129. 
Money, 36. 
Moneyed, 301. 
Mongibello, 86. 
Mongrel, 162. 
Monikin, 156. 
Monk, 30. 
Montague, 109. 



ETYMOLOGY. 



357 



Moon, 188. 
Moonling, 160. 
Morning, 159. 
Morocco, 150. 
Mortimer, 123. 
Morton, 106. 
Moseley, 116. 
Moses, 115. 
Moss, 116. 
Most, 231. 
Mote, 74, 306. 
Mought, 292, 305. 
Mount Vidgeon pea, 208 
Mountain, 62, 80, 163. 
Mow, 231. 
Much, 62. 

Muck, to run a, 267. 
Muckle, 232. 
Mummery, 215. 
Muslin, 143. 
Must, 308. 
Muzzle, 162. 
My, 250. 

N. 

Nag, 270. 
Nail, 162. 
Nanny, 270. 
Nantwich, 107. 
Napier, 129. 
Napkin, 157. 
Naught, 322. 
Navvy, 201. 
Nay, 321. 
Neander, 135. 
Near, 234. 
Necessary, 75. 
Necromancy, 206. 
Needle, 162. 
Needs, 313. 
Negroponte, 207. 
Neighbor, 234. 
Neither, 325. 
Ned, 270. 
Neddy, 194. 
Nell, 125, 270. 
Nelson, 125. 
Netherlands, 233. 
Netley, 105. 
Never, 314. 
Newcastle, 93. 
News, 184. 
Newt, 270. 
Newton, 106. 
Nick, Old, 100. 
Niggard, 164. 
Nightmare, 208. 



Ninny, 157. 
No, 321. 
Noddy, 157. 
Nonce, 271, 319. 
None, 325. 
Norfolk, 19, 108. 
Normans, 183. 
Norton, 106. 
Nostril, 348. 
Not, 322. 
Nowadays, 314. 
Noways, 314. 
.Nugget, 270, 349. 
Nuncle, 270. 
Nurse, 154. 

o. 

O', 117. 
Oak, 75. 
Oaken, 222. 
Obstacle, 162. 
O'Brien, 136. 
Och, 127. 
O'clock, 315. 
Odds and ends, 209. 
Odilon Barrot, 118. 
Offley, 105. 
Oldmixon, 125. 
Olivier le Daim, 135. 
Omelet, 198. 
Once, 319. 
One, 259. 
Onus, 46. 
Or, 333. 
Orange, 268. 
Orchard, 59, 349. 
Orizon, 80. 
Orrery, 142. 
Osborne, 100. 
Osiander, 136. 
Other, 258. 
Ought, 316. 
Our, 249. 
Ours, 251. 
Ouse, 84. 
Owe, 280. 
Owlet, 161. 
Own, 280, 296. 
Oxen, 181. 
Oxford, 103. 
Oyez, 205. 



Paddock, 158. 
Pagan, 213. 
Pall, 31. 



Palestine soup, 207. 
Pall-Mail, 197. 
Palsy, 199. 
Pander, 276. 
Pansy, 198. 
Pantheon, 202. 
Paradox, 48, 199. 
Paralysis, 48. 
Paramour 152, 192. 
Parchment, 143. 
Pardoe, 342. 
Parsall, 342. 
Parsley, 31. 
Parson, 36. 
Part, 180. 
Party, 75. 
Patterson, 125. 
Payne, 129. 
Peach, 143. 
Peas, 177. 
Peeress, 154. 
Pelissier, 117. 
Pen, 85. 
Pence, 178. 
Pendennis, 85. 
Penmon, 85, 99. 
Pennies, 178. 
Pennine, Alps, 85. 
Penning and penny, 159. 
Penrose, 85. 
Penzance, 85. 
Pepper, 31. 
Perchance, 315. 
Perhaps, 314. 
Perkin, 127. 
Person, 36, 322.. 
Petrels, 207. 
Petty, 220. 
Pheasant, 143. 
Philippi, 104. 
Philippics, 142. 
Philpotts, 125. 
Phipps, 125. 
Phiz, 201. 
Phlegm, 62. 
Pickett, 120. 
Piccoluomini, 156. 
Pickerel, 161. 
Picturesque, 223. 
Piecemeal, 314. 
Pier, 197. 
Pin, 198, 349. 
Pindus, 85. 
Pioneer, 147. 
Pipkin, 156. 
Pistol, 144. 
Pleasure, 71. 
Plot, 200. 



358 



ETYMOLOGY. 



Plum and Feathers, 132. 
Plunder. 101. 
Plush, 197. 
Pocket, 161. 
Polk, 158. 
Pollard, 163. 
Pollock, 127, 158. 
Pontefract, 93. 
Popkiss, 132. 
Porpoise, 203. 
Portway, 91. 
Posgaru, 133. 
Posthumous, 197. 
Potsherd, 167. 
Pottinger, 270. 
Poulterer, 148. 
Pound, 31. 
Practice, 180. 
Preach, 31. 
Presbyter, 30. 
Pretty, 221. 
Prichard, 120. 
Prick, 349. 
Prim, 201. 
Prime, 31. 
Princess, 154. 
Progress, 45. 
Proof, 198. 
Property, 80. 
Propriety, 80. 
Provost, 31. 
Proxy, 199. 
Prude, 212. 
Psalms, 30. 
Pshaw, 204. 
Pumice, 31. 
Punch and Judy, 132. 
Punster, 153. 
Puny, 220. 
Purlieu, 215. 
Purpose, 346. 
Pye, 343. 

Q. 

Quail, 278. 
Quandary, 204. 
Quarantine, 263. 
Quarter Sessions, rose 

of, 203. 
Queen, 155, 218. 
Quiet, 36. 
Quinsy, 199. 

R. 

Randolph, 163. 
Rape, 98. 



Rash, 221. 
Rat, to, 277. 
Rather, 233. 
Ravenhill, 100. 
Ravenous, 277. 
Reckless, 227. 
Reckon, 281. 
Reeve, 168. 
Reign, 62. 
Respectable, 212. 
Reverend, 298. 
Reynard, 163. 
Reynold, 163. 
Rhodomontade, 142. 
Richards, 125. 
Riches, 183. 
Rickets, 206. 
Ridge, 61. 
Riding, 101, 261. 
Riding-coat, 204. 
Roadster, 153. 
Roamer, 150, 215. 
Rochester, 90. 
Roodey, 99. 
Root, 349. 
Rosemary, 206. 
Rossini, 126. 
Rugby, 98, 148. 
Rule, 31. 
Runagate, 207. 
Russet, 161. 

S. 

Saddleback, 84. 
Saffron, 268. 
Salisbury, 108. 
Salmon, 116. 
Saltcellar, 206. 
Sampler, 269. 
Samson, 125. 
Sandwich, 107. 
Sandy Acre, 131. 
Sans, 332. 
Sapling, 160. 
Saragossa, 104. 
Sash, 197. 
Satellites, 185. 
Satin, 144. 
Satterthwaite, 128. 
Saturday, 128. 
Saunterer, 148, 215. 
Savior, 147. 
Saw, 60. 
Sawyer, 147. 
Scandal, 296. 
Scar, 107. 
Scarborough, 108. 



Scaredevil, 130. 
Scent, 74. 
Scipio, 115. 
Scorch, 284. 
Score, 263. 
Scotch, 224. 
Scratt, 100. 
Scratch, Old, 100. 
Scrimmage, 269. 
Scruple, 258. 
Scudo, 159. 
Scum, 198. 
Seamstress, 154. 
Second, 258. 
Secure, 36. 
Sedge, 61. 
Sedgwick, 107. 
Segar, 197. 

Seldom, 174, 225, 314. 
Self, 254. 
Sennight, 100. 
Sent, 74. 
Seraphim, 175. 
Sere, 48. 
Serf, 216. 
Sergeant, 60. 
Sewer, 197. 
Shabby, 220. 
Shakelady, 132. 
Shakespeare, 133. 
Shall, 307. 
Shalot, 269. 
Sham, 200. 

Shamefaced, 209, 227. 
Shands, 129. 
Shanks, 126. 
She, 245. 
Shear, 167. 
Shepody, Mt., 130. 
Sheppy, 99. 
Sheriff, 168. 
Shilling, 159. 
Shire, 168. 
Shoon, 181. 
Shore, 167. 
Should, 63. 
Shovel, 162. 
Shred, 168, 348. 
Shrew, 192. 
Shrub, 199. 
Shuttlecock, 209. 
Silly, 225. 
Simonides, 134. 
Simony, 142. 
Since, 332. 
Singer, 153. 
Sinclair, 123. 
Sister, 152. 



ETYMOLOGY. 



359 



Skinker, 131. 
Skirt, 168. 
Skirmish, 269. 
Slander, 269. 
Sleddel, 170. 
Sloman, 116. 
Smallpox, 153. 
Smith, 136. 
Sneak, 278. 
Snowden, 84. 
Snows, The, 130. 
Sodor, 97. 
Soldier, 147, 160. 
Some, 225. 
Son, 125. 

Songstress, 151, 154. 
Sorcerer, 148. 
Sorrel, 161. 
Sorrow, 56. 
Sorry, 223. 
Southernwood, 209. 
Sovereign, 62. 
Spain, 62, 268. 
Sparrow, 56. 
Sparrowgrass, 206. 
Speak, 349. 
Speckle, 349. 
Spenser, 128. 
Spinster, 152. 
Spitalfields, 201. 
Sprite, 269. 
Stabback, 132. 
Staggard, 103. 
Stain, 284. 
Staines, 93. 
Stake, 73. 
Stanton, 106. 
Stationer, 149. 
Statuesque, 223. 
Status, 46. 
Staves, 177. 
Stavesacre, 205. 
Steadfast, 209, 227. 
Steak, 73. 
Sterling, 130, 160. 
Stern, 223. 
Stewart, 164. 
Stirrup, 209. 
Stocking, 182. 
Stoddard, 164. 
Storthing, 101. 
Strange, 198. 
Strath, 87. 
Stratum, 28, 91. 
Stratford, 91. 
St. John, 123. 
St. Leger, 123. 
St. Mary Overy, 200. 



Suffolk, 19, 108. 
Sum, 226, 266. 
Summerset, 204. 
Summons, 184. 
Sumner, 129, 150. 
Sun, 188. 
Sure, 36, 71. 
Surgeon, 201. 
Surgery, 78. 
Surry, 166. 
Sussex, 19, 108. 
Sutherland, 97. 
Sutton, 106. 
Sweetheart, 164. 
Swine, 180. 
Syrup, 199. 



Tadcaster, 90. 
Tadpole, 201. 
Tatton, 56. 
Tallyho, 198. 
Tan, 350. 
Tansy, 198. 
Tantalize, 276. 
Tapster, 152. 
Tartars, 349. 
Task, 350. 
Taylor, 136. 
Tea, 78. 
Teamster, 151. 
Tebbs, 123. 
Telfair, 129. 
Temper, 349. 
Temple, 111. 
Ten, 105, 261. 
Tennis, 198. 
Terminus, 186. 
That, 335. 
Thaxter, 153. 
The, 266. 
Them, 174. 
Themselves, 254. 
Thence, 320. 
rhev, 249. 
Thine, 249. 
Thing, 101. 
Third, 260. 
Thirlwall, 92. 
Thoresby, 97, 128. 
Thorough, 331. 
Thoroughgood, 208. 
Thorpe, 97. 
Thou, 241. 
Three, 260. 
Threshold, 163. 
Thrice, 319. 



Thrill, 348. 
Through, 331. 
Thugut, 135. 
Thurlow, 128. 
Thursdav, 128. 
Thwaite^ 97. 
Thv, 250. 
Tick, 202. 
Ticket, 198, 269. 
Tidings, 184. 
Tile, 197. 
Till, 333. 
Tin, 198. 
Tinsel, 269. 
Tipple, 129. 
To, 282. 

Tollemache, 199. 
Tom a Styles, 121. 
Tomkin, 127. 
Toothsome, 226. 
Top, sleep like a, 205. 
Topsy-turvy, 209. 
Tough, 23. 
Town, 106, 260. 
Tract, 36. 
Tramroads, 200. 
Transact, 41. 
Treacle, 206. 
Treasure, 345. 
Treat, 36. 
Treen, 222. 
Trollope, 152. 
Trouble, 345. 
Trump, 197. 
Trumpet, 161. 
Tuberose, 203. 
Tucker, 149. 
Tun, 105. 
Tunnel, 106, 260. 
Turnkey, 197. 
Twain, 620. 
Twelve, 262. 
Twelfth Night, 100. 
Twenty, 262. 
Twice, 319. 
Twin, 182, 260. 
Two, 260. 
Tynewald, 101. 
Tyranny, 105, 261. 

u. 

Ufford, 103. 
Ultimatum, 46. 
Unawares, 319. 
Unbeknown, 287. 
Unpossible, 227. 
Until, 334. 



360 



ETYMOLOGY. 



Upholsterer, 154. 
Uppermost, 237. 
Upwards, 319. 
Uracca, 137. 
Urchin, 201. 
Ursula, 137. 
Usher, 189. 
Uttermost, 237. 

V. 

Vail, 74. 
Vale, 74. 
Valet, 161. 
Van, 200, 269. 
Varlet, 161. 
Varnish, 143. 
Vehicle, 162. 
Velvet, 144. 
Verdict, 171. 
Verdigris, 206. 
Verjuice, 206. 
Verse, 31. 
Vertu, 5. 
Vestry, 197. 
Victoria, 104. 
Viking, 94. 
Villain, 213, 214. 
Vinegar, 171, 220. 
Virtuoso, 55. 
Vixen, 155. 
Voice, 190. 
Volley, 197. 

w. 

Wages, 60. 
Wagon, 59. 
Wales, 86. 
Wallsend, 92. 
Walrus, 348. 
Walton, 106. 
Wansbeck, 86. 
War, 60. 
Warburton, 106. 
Warrant, 199. 
Warren, 60. 
Warwick, 107. 
Was, 304. 
Wasp, 60. 
Washington, 104. 
Waste, 60. 
Wastrel, 160. 



Watkin, 125. 
Wattling Street, 92. 
Watts, 125. 
Way, 59. 
We, 241. 
Wearisome, 226. 
Webster, 152. 
Wedge, 61. 
Wednesday, 128. 
Weird, 308. 
Welsh, 224. 
Welfare, 288. 
Welkin, 182. 
Welladav, 340. 
Wellnigh, 234. 
Welsh rabbit, 208. 
Wend, 295. 
Were, 304. 
Wert, 303. 
Wessex, 19, 108. 
Whelp, 60. 
Whence, 320. 
Which, 256. 
Whiles, 314. 
Whilk, 62. 
Whilom, 174, 314. 
Whilst, 237, 314. 
Whit, 322. 
Whitby, 98. 
Whittington's cat, 205 
Wholly, 73. 
Whom, 174. 
Why, 314. 
Wicket, 60. 
Widower, 150. 
Wife, 152. 
Wifukie, 157. 
Wig, 201. 
Wight, 322. 
Wilberforce, 100, 208. 
Wilcox, 127. 
Wilkin, 125, 127. 
William, 60. 
Wills, 125. 
Willy-nilly, 325. 
Winchester, 90. 
Window, 170. 
Winthrop, 346. 
Wise, 60. 
Wiseacre, 207. 
Wiss, I, 286. 
With, 331. 



Witness, 141, 168. 
Wizard, 163. 
Woe, worse, worst, 233. 
Women, 176, 183. 
Wood, Anthony a, 121. 
Wooden, 222. 
Woof, 152. 
Woolen, 222. 
Wooster, 153. 
Worship, 167. 
Worm, 278. 
Wormwood, 138, 207. 
Worse, 232. 
Worship, 167. 
Worst, 232. 
Worsted, 143. 
Worth, 308. 
Wotton, 106. 
Would, 63, 307. 
Wright, 348. 
Wye, 84. 
Wyches, 107. 

T. 

Yampert, 123. 
Yard, 59. 
Yclept, 286. 
Ye, 246. 
Year, 59. 
Yearling, 280. 
Yellow, 56, 59. 
Yes, 326. 
Yesterday, 59. 
Yet, 59. 
Yew, 89. 
Yoke, 59. 
Yore*, 59. 
York, 87. 
You, 246. 
Young, 59. 
Youngster, 153. 
Younker, 153. 
Your, 249. 
Yours, 251. 
Youth, 141. 

z. 



Zealous, 36. 
Zounds, 342. 



INDEX. 



A, for he, 245. 

before verbs, 288. 
before adverbs, 313. 
Ablatives, 314. 
Abuse of nouns, 196, 202. 
of foreign nouns, 202, 

207. 
of adjectives, 220. 
Accent, 74. 

sensual and logical, 

74. 
sign of age of words, 

78. 
changes the spelling, 

80. 
in compound nouns, 
171. 
Address, mode of, 248. 
Adjectives, 219. 

from other parts of 

speech, 221. 
as nouns, 144. 
with possessive pro- 
nouns, 145. 
not original words, 

219. 
negative, 227. 
inflections of, 228. 
as verbs, 279. 
as adverbs, 317. 
as participles, 299. 
change meaning, 220. 
Adverbs, 313. 
as verbs, 279. 
are abbreviations, 

313. 
from nouns, 313. 
from adjectives, 316. 
from numerals, 319. 
from pronouns, 320. 
from verbs, 320. 
Affirmative adverbs, 321. 



Algonquin languages, 27, 

172. 
Alias, in names, 134. 
Alphabet, English, 73. 
American Orthography in 

Latin words, 45. 

local names, 112. 
Angles, 108. 
Anglo-Saxons, 14, 18. 
Anglo-Saxon priests, 31. 

and Swedish, 14. 

dual, 182. 

declension, 172. 

inflections, 174, 266, 
291. 

gender lost, 190. 

and the Reformers, 
32. 
Apostrophe, 175. 
Aram, Eugene, 82. 
Arabic in English, 207. 

numerals, 264. 
Article in English, 265. 
-ard, 115, 163. 
Armorican, 11. 
Article, 265. 

indefinite, 266. 

definite, 266. 

use of, 266. 

disguised, 267. 

misunderstood, 267. 

spurious, 198. 
Aryan, 9. 
-ate, 164. 
Augmentatives, 163. 

in 4ng, 160. 

Saxon, 163. 

French, 164. 
Auxiliary verbs, 302. 



B. 

Bacon, Lord, 38. 



Bayeux, tapestry of, 72. 
Be, before verbs, 287. 

before adverbs, 314. 
Be, to, 303. 
Bible, translated, 32. 
Bohemian, 15. 
Botanical names, 206. 
Britons, 20. 
By, 97. 



c. 

C, before verbs, 283. 
C, changed into k, 182. 
Caesar, in England, 27. 
Can, I, 308. 
Canute, song of, 30, 100. 

king of England, 95. 
Cases, 172. 
Celtic, 11. 

proper names, 120. 

in English, 23. 

local names, 83. 

not written, 89. 

numerals, 262. 
Change of vowels, 292. 

of consonants, 293. 
Cheshire, 105. 
Chinese verbs, 271. 
Church of Rome, 28. 

service, 44. 
Classic, Learning, 37. 
Claudius, 27, 64. 
Commons, house of, 44. 
Comparative degrees, 
228. 

double, 236. 
Compound nouns, 168. 

of foreign origin, 171. 
Compound verbs, 288. 
Conjugation, 291. 
Conjunctions, 333. 

obsolete, 335. 



362 



INDEX. 



Consonants, 268. 

change in verbs, 283. 
Contraction of words, 
141. 

of names, 131. 

of nouns, 146, 197. 

of Latin words, 198. 
Cornish, 11. 

names, 85, 88. 
Counting, mode of, 257. 
Cumberland, 86. 
Cymric, 11. 

and Gaelic, 12. 



D. 

D, changed into th, 284. 
added to verbs, 284. 
Danelag, 95. 
Danes in England, 23. 
Danish, 14. 

in English, 14. 
. influence on orthog- 
raphy, 70. 
local names, 97. 
mode of address, 248. 
Dative, for adverbs, 314. 
Declension, in Anglo- 
Saxon, 172. 
lost, 173. 
Definite tense, 291. 
Dentals, in German, 49. 
Degrees, comparative, 

228. 
Derivative nouns, 146. 
Devonshire, dialect of, 51. 
Diminutives, 156. 
of nouns, 156. 
of verbs, 284. 
in -ing, 159. 
in -ling, 160. 
in -et, 162. 
of classic origin, 

162. 
Scotch, 157. 
Disguised names, 116. 
Do, to, 302. 
-dom, 165. 

Doomsday-book, 20, 166. 
Dooms, 166. 

Double forms for com- 
parative and su- 
perlative, 236. 
of negatives and af- 
firmatives, 324. 
Dual, in English, 182, 
269. 



Dualism of words, 139, 

229. 
Duodecimal measures, 

262. 
Dutch names, 115. 

words illtreated, 207. 
mode of address, 
248. 



E. 

E, initial, 148. 

final, 55. 

suppressed, 294, 318. 
-ee, 164. 
Egbert, 20. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 24, 37, 

47. 
.el, 161. 
-en, for plural, 180. 

for adjectives, 222. 

for verbs, 280. 

for plural in verbs, 
290. 

for participle present, 
295. 

for past, 301. 
English, 

modern formed, 44. 

beauty of, 53, 266. 

sibilants, 50. 

vowels, 71. 

monosyllabic, 54. 

mechanical perfec- 
tion, 53, 174. 

prosody, 75. 

local names, 128. 

enclosures, 105. 

surnames, 116, 133. 

names changed, 208. 

despised in England, 
177. 

power of absorption, 
185. 

mature character of, 
53, 184. 

rejects gender, 187. 

words in French, 202. 

nouns changed, 196, 
208, 215. 

numerals how form- 
ed, 259. 

article, use of, 267. 

-er, 146, 192, 284. 
Erse, 12. 
Essayists, 45. 
-esse, 154, 192. 



-est, in superlatives, 236« 

in verbs, 290. 
-et, 160. 
-eth, 290. 
-ette. 160. 
Ethelred, king, 94. 
Euphony, laws of, 53. 
Expletives, 248, 310. 



F. 

F, changed into v, 178. 
Fallen words, 211, 216. 
For, in verbs, 288. 
Foreign nouns in Eng- 
lish, 190, 203. 
words misunderstood, 
202. 
Frederick the Great, 3. 
French, 13. 

nasal sounds, 49. 
accent, 77. 
diminutives, 160. 
augmentatives, 164. 
prevailing in Eng- 
land, 25. 
ill-treated, 198, 203, 

269. 
adjectives, 220. 
numerals, 258. 
mode of counting, 

262. 
disguised article in, 

269. 
gender, 186. 
nouns contracted, 

197. 
de, added in Eng- 
lish, 269. 
Frisians, 93. 

in England, 94. 
Frisic, 94. 
Future of verbs, 305. 



G. 

Gadhelic, 12. 

Ge, before verbs, 285. 

changed into be and 
a, 286. 
Gender, 186,190. 

lost, 187. 

different of same 
words, 151, 153. 

artificial, 188. 

neuter, in nouns, 190. 



INDEX. 



363 



Gender, in pronouns, 246. 
changed from fem- 
inine to masculine, 
151. 
Genitive in s for adverbs, 

314. 
German, high, 14. 
low, 14. 
dentals, 49. 
gender, 186. 
influence, in Eng- 
lish, 25. 
■words ill-treated, 207. 
mode of address, 248. 
article, 267. 
God, name of, 157. 
Gothic, 14, 43. 
Grammatical forms, 174. 
Greek, in English, 16, 46, 
205. 
grammar, 68. 
mode of address, 249, 
article, 265. 
verbs, 272. 
words of counting, 

259. 
contracted, 205. 
Gypsies, 10. 

H. 

Hadrian, 27. 

Hastings, 20. 

Have, to, 304. 

He, 245. 

-head, 166. 

Hebrew grammar, 68. 

Hellenic, 12. 

Henry I., 96. 

Henry III., proclamation 

of, 61. 
His, 251. 
Holstein, 94. 
Hornbook, 264. 
-hood, 166. 
Hybrid words, 166, 228. 



I, 239. 

I, for aye, 326. 
-ie, 157, 180, 223. 
Iguvium, tables of, 13. 
Impersonal verbs, 309. 
-in, 155. 

Indefinite article, 259. 
tense, 291. 



Indie, 10. 

Indian gender, 189. 
Indo-European, 9. 
Inflections, 173, 265. 

lost in English, 174, 
265, 289. 

of verbs, 282. 
Infinitive, 281. 
-nig, 158. 296. 
Lukhorn terms, 38. 
Interjections, 336. 

origin of all words, 7, 
337. 

use of, 338. 

disguised, 341. 
Iranic, 10. 
Irish culture, 28. 
Irregular verbs, 295. 
-ish, 223. 
-it, 245, 311. 
Italic, 12. 
Italian, 

in English, 24. 

mode of address, 249. 

articles, 268. 

its, 251. 



James I., 38. 
Jutes, 18. 

local names of, 108. 



K. 

-kin, 156. 

Knights Templar, 111. 



Lancashire, dialect of, 23, 

51. 
Language, 

a living organism, 

305. 
mirror of soul, 239. 
adventurers of, 278. 
inner life of, 196. 
Latin, 12, 13, 16, 26, 29, 

43. 
use in English, 35. 
grammar, 68, 
prosody, 74. 
nouns in English, 

190. 
ill treated, 198, 206. 



Latin, article, 265. 

accent, 74. 
-less, 227. 
-let, 162. 
Lincolnshire, 97. 
-ling, 159. 
Lisping, 50. 
-ly, 224, 225, 317. 
Local names and his- 
tory, 82. 



M. 

Man, Isle of, 12, 88, 99. 

Mann, 12, 88. 

Marriage service, 32, 167. 

Meaning changed, 209. 

Mohegans, language of, 
219. 

Monks, local names from, 
4. 

Monosyllables in Eng- 
lish, 54. 



N. 

Names, 

their meaning, 114. 
from trades, 124. 
the mother's con- 
duct, 152. 
Saints, 123. 
Saxons, 123. 
Danes, 1. 
proper, 114, 194. 
from plurals, 126. 
from the Creator, 127. 
from the names of 

gods, 128. 
from misconduct of 

parents, 152. 
from offices at court, 

128. 
double, 132. 
too short, 134. 
change of, 130, 137. 
influence of, 114, 137. 
of animals given to 

tools, 195. 
added, to express 

gender, 194. 
shortened, 199. 
of animals, 194. 
Dutch, in English, 

115. 
of rivers, 84. 



364 



INDEX. 



Napoleon, name of, 74. 
Nasal sounds, in French, 
49. 
in Latin, 281. 
Naturalization of foreign 

nouns, 190. 
Nationality, expressions 

of, 240. 
Nations, the Six, 52. 
-ness, 168. 
Negative adverbs, 321. 

double, 324. 
Neuter, in nouns, 189. 

unpopular, 190, 253. 
New England drawl, 51. 
Norfolk, dialect of, 51. 
Normans, 20, 33. 

local names, 109. 
proper names, 128. 
inflections, 36, 173. 
Norse, surnames, 95. 
Norseman, 94. 
Northumberland, 94. 

dialect of, 51. 
Norwegian, 14. 
Nouns, 139. 

and verbs, 139, 142, 

273. 
abstract, 141. 
oldest parts of speech, 

139. 
from proper names, 

142, 275. 
derivative, 146. 
compound, 168. 
abused, 196. 
strong and weak, 176. 
of one number only, 

179. 
used as adjectives, 

144, 221. 
used as verbs, 142, 

274. 
contracted, 197. 
curtailed, 200, 208. 
Number of nouns, 179. 
Numerals, 223, 257. 
how written, 264. 
useful for etvmology, 

258, 262. " 
comparative table of, 
262. 

o. 

0, 117. 
Oaths, 243. 
Oblique cases, 243. 



-oek, 158. 

On, 314. 

One, added to adjectives, 

144. 
Origin of language, 8. 
Orkneys, 97. 
Oscan, 12. 
Ought, 306. 
Our, 249. 
Ours, 250. 
Oxford, 37. 



P. 

Panslavism, 15. 
Participles, 295. 

present, 295. 

past, 298. 

from nouns, 300. 
Particles, 329. 
Particles as verbs, 279. 
Past tenses, 291. 
Patronymics, 124. 

in -ing, 158. 

in -ling, 159. 

in -ster, 152. 
Periodic style, 42. 
Persian, 249. 
Phonography, 66. 
Pliancy of English, 40. 
Plural, 175. 

vulgar fondness for, 
126. 

in Hebrew, 175. 

in Persian, 176. 

in Anglo Saxon, 176. 

double forms of, 177, 
181. 

in -en, 180, 290. 

apparent, 183. 

of nouns, 177. 

with singular mean- 
ing, 182. 

foreign forms of, 185. 

majestic, 246. 

in verbs, 290. 
Polish, 15, 249. 
Popes, names of, 130. 
Possessive pronouns, 249. 

with adjectives, 145. 
Prefixes to verbs, 285. 
Prepositions, 173, 266, 
330. 

compound, 332. 
Present, continued, 305. 
Printers in England, 72. 
Pronouns, 173, 238. 



Pronouns, luxury of lan- 
guage, 239. 

to express gender. 
193. 

reflexive, 253. 

lawless, 242. 

used for inflection, 
266. 

used for verbs, 275. 

as expletives, 310. 

oldest part of speech, 
238. 

none Norman, 240. 

relative, 255. 

possessive, 249. 
Prosody, 75. 
Puritans, Latin of, 38. 



Quakers' Thee, 242. 



R. 

R, liquid, transferred, 345. 
Radical letters changed, 

292. 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 38. 
Reaping machines of 

Celts, 118. 
Reduplication, 294. 
Reflexive pronouns, 253. 
Relative pronoun, 255. 
Restoration, the, 42. 
-ric, 166. 

Risen words, 210. 
Romance languages, 265. 
Romans, 43. 

camps of, 28. 

roads of, 91. 

wall of, 92. 

names of, 114. 

numbers of, 258, 264. 
Runes, 71. 

Russian mode of address, 
249. 



s. 



-s, for genitive, 175. 
-s, or es, for plural, 176. 
S, prefixed to verbs, 284. 
inserted in verbs, 

284. 
sign of adverbs, 313, 
316. 



A> 



INDEX. 



365 



Sanscrit, 10. 
Saxons, 18, 102. 
Saxon, 14. 

names, age of, 123. 

in England, 102. 

nouns ill treated in 
English, 209. 
Scandinavian languages, 
14. 

influence, 304. 
Sclavonic, 15, 49. 
Scotch, 11. 

fond of -ster, 153. 

diminutives, 157. 

retains old forms, 62, 
314. 
Self, 254. 

Semi-Saxon article, 265. 
Shakespeare, qu. 45. 

his English, 41. 

how spelt, 48, 72. 
Shall, I, 307. 
She, 245. 
-ship, 167. 
-shire, 167. 
Sibilants in English, 50, 

290. 
Shortening of words, 55. 
Singular, 175. 

of nouns only, 180. 
Slesvic, 94. 
-some, 225. 
South, speech of, 52. 
Spanish, 

in English, 25. 

mode of address, 249. 

article, 268. 
Spelling, 67. 

Spiritual power of Eng- 
lish, 57, 299. 
-ster, 151. 
Strong nouns, 176. 

verbs, 291. 
Suffolk, dialect of, 51. 
Superlative degrees, 228. 

double forms of, 229, 
236. 

in -est, 236. 



Surnames, 115. 

how derived, 116. 

compound, 132. 

Puritan, 133. 
Swedish, 14. 
Sylvester II., 264. 
Synonyms, 41. 



Tacitus, 27. 

Tavistock, nunnery of, 

22. 
Tenses, of verbs, 291. 
Teutonic languages, 13. 
Th, 63. 
Thee, 242. 
Thou, 241, 247. 
To, before verbs, 282. 
Ton, large and small, 

262. 
Transferred gender, 
beauty of, 188. 
Turanic, 9. 
-ty, 223. 
Tynewald, 88. 



u. 

UMlas, 14. 
Umbrian, 13. 
Un, 227. 



Vaugelas, 69. 
Verbs, 272. 

used as nouns, 273. 
are living words, 

272. 
from proper names. 

276. 
from adjectives, 279. 
by change of final 

letter, 280. 



Verbs from other verbs, 

283. 
diminutive, 284. 
compound, 288. 
weak and strong, 

291. 
irregular, 295. 
auxiliary, 302. 
impersonal, 309. 
Vowels, 

dimmed, 269. 
changed in plural, 

176. 
changed in verbs, 

283. 
changed in past 

tense, 291. 



w. 

War, terms of, 210. 
We, with singular mean- 
ing, 245. 
Weak nouns, 176. 

verbs, 291. 
Wedge writing, 10. 
Welsh, 11. 
Wight, Isle of, 18. 
Wilfrith, Bishop, 93. 
Will, I, 306. 
-wold, 163. 



Y, 157, 165, 180. 

for th, 64. 

for adjectives, 223. 

before verbs, 286. 
Ye, 247. 

for thou, 246. 
Your, 249. 
Yours, 250. 



Zend, 10. 



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